Michael Hession: psychiatrist, music lover, and “red rebel from Barts” who organised a protest against poor pay and working conditions

Abstract

In his 2023 memoir Michael Hession wrote that he had been an individual of many parts: doctor, medical and political activist, publisher, photographer, pilot, skier, cellist, farmer, concert promoter, and more. After qualifying as a junior hospital doctor in 1964, Hession was paid £28 a month for working more than 120 hours a week, and he struggled to make ends meet. One weekend he donned his theatre gown at 8 am on a Friday and did not take it off until 4 30 pm three days later. His contract required him to be on-call around the clock and for six months he could not leave the hospital. Hession found this unacceptable: he was grossly exploited and was risking his health as well as the health of his patients. He and a few others formed the Junior Hospital Doctors Action Committee and organised the first NHS protest against pay and working conditions, lobbying the government, lodging a complaint with the BMA, and getting their message out to a largely supportive press. Although support from junior doctors was almost unanimous, consultants were unsympathetic. Their attitude was that they had suffered, so why …