The Blair government tried to make UK qualified hospital consultants not take on any private work for a period of five years after qualifying. Two things happened there..

1. They backed down before the promised judicial review should they have tried to introduce it. Human Rights legislation precludes fettering the right to work, especially in your own country!

2. Their plans at the time for bringing down the awfully long post Major /Th*tcher waiting lists included paying private hospitals to help with the backlog. Some legislation at the time (Care Standards Act 2000) made it far easier in bureaucracy terms for private hospitals to only use consultants who also work in The NHS. In other words, they wouldn't have enough doctors to help clear the logjam.

Mrs Musket has never bothered with private work and up till Hunt's meddling with junior doctors, being a precursor to when he starts to negotiate the consultant contract... She and her colleagues are talking all the more about it. Hunt has already got one part of consultant pay in his sights, which in her case, (and the majority under the age of 50) would mean losing over £14k a year at a stroke. Of course, in return I doubt she or others would then be willing to carry on working 70 hours a week and being told they are paid for 48. (11 session, as it's called.) Not all consultants work that much over their paid time but the majority certainly do.

Teachers have been voting with their feet for ages. I like Jim see many comparisons with health. You start with demonising the profession and take it from there.....