Doctors in Unite

It underwent a series of mergers which formed the Manufacturing, Science and Finance union, Amicus[5] and ultimately Unite.

The MPU's aims from the outset were to extend the provision of medical care by the state, while retaining the independence of general practitioners.

[citation needed] However, because of the autonomy guaranteed to MPU representatives, it was still possible for junior doctors to pursue the issue, despite BMA opposition.

[18][19][20] This including several Parliamentary bills promoted by MPs allied to the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs union, which detailed proposals on how hours of work could be reduced.

[citation needed] Eventually the campaign enabled the BMA to negotiate a new deal on hours of work.

In the 1990s the MPU focused on opposition to GP fundholding, a policy introduced by Margaret Thatcher's government where GPs held budgets for their patients' care.

Locality commissioning was widely endorsed by doctors, including the BMA, and was implemented by the incoming Labour government in 1997.

[citation needed] In 2019 it published proposals for public health and primary care in local neighbourhoods.

The BMA however was concerned by issues that arose in local authority hospitals in the 1930s, and abandoned its previous support for an NHS run by county councils.

It was the only TUC affiliated trade union party to medical negotiating machinery until 2016, when the HCSA also gained recognition.

[citation needed] That agreement remains in force to this day, and is the means by which UNITE accesses the negotiating machinery for doctors and hospital dentists in the NHS.

[citation needed] As that is no longer the case, UNITE is now the only recognised medical trade union in negotiations with local government.

[citation needed] The recognition of the HCSA in 2016 led to a dispute about the negotiating machinery, which remains unresolved.