I am proud to be your president during the opening of another chapter in the rich history of your union.
Today, HCSA – the hospital doctors’ union is making the public switch to the new name which members voted to endorse back in 2024. We are now the Hospital Doctors Union.
This is not the first time our organisation has evolved to reflect changing times.
Founded in 1948 as the Regional Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association, your union was born out of concern for how doctors in less prominent, non-teaching hospitals were being treated unfavourably compared to their teaching hospital counterparts amid the creation of the NHS.
So the RHCSA arose. Over the years the organisation grew from its roots to become the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association and, more recently, after opening membership to resident doctors, we became HCSA – the hospital doctors’ union.
The latest change is a case of evolution, not revolution. The aim is to define clearly that we are the union for all hospital doctors: consultant, SAS, resident and locally employed doctors alike, as well as medical students as hospital doctors of the future.
We have long been the only trade union dedicated solely to these grades, in the NHS and private sector. Now our name makes this clear to those who should be members but are not.
Concerningly, a large number of our colleagues are still in no union. When it comes to employment issues this doesn’t just mean they are taking a huge personal risk, but it also weakens the voice and influence of the profession in a health system which puts us all under great pressure.
The stronger your union, the stronger our position is to represent and support you and our profession.
I therefore urge you to use the opportunity of our new name and identity to talk to colleagues about your union: to highlight the personal risks of being without union membership and the benefits of joining to strengthen your voice and your influence.
HDU’s excellence is in individual support, but also our advocacy for the profession as a whole, at all career stages.
We shall remain politically unaffiliated but, as we have been since the 1970s, part of a wider group of health unions under the Trades Union Congress umbrella, which gives us greater collective strength on the issues which impact not just on doctors but our colleagues too.
Yet we hospital doctors are a distinct group with our own needs and concerns – we deserve to have a specialised union which is clearly focused on our interests and excels at supporting you in your hour of need.
HDU, like HCSA and the RHCSA before it, shall continue this laser focus, drawing on our knowledge and 78-year history, for all grades, in all parts of the UK.
As we enter a new era for our union many things will stay the same, but I know that with your support we can use this important point in our history to grow, build and thrive.
Our goal is to forge an ever-stronger, specialist organisation dedicated to you and the profession as a whole.
Dr Claudia Paoloni is president of the Hospital Doctors Union.