Pictures have emerged of doctors in Gaza supporting British junior doctors in their battle against the Government’s efforts to introduce a new contract.
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Yesterday we reported how the trust said the strike had led to 68 appointments, and 13 elective surgical cases, being cancelled.
A picket line protest took place outside Stoke Mandeville Hospital today as junior doctors took strike action over proposed new contracts.
Winchester’s Junior Doctors have told Winchester Today that they stand firm on industrial action, and have no regrets on walking out on 24-hour strike.
The British Medical Association (BMA) has said there are still several issues still to be resolved.
“We do not need to ballot again to call another episode of industrial action”.
The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust said: “The Trust has plans to deal with a range of disruptions, including industrial action, and will ensure that any impact on patients is minimised”.
The dispute is in relation to a new contract that health secretary Jeremy Hunt wants to introduce a new contract that includes evening and weekends as plain time and not premium time as part of moves to improve care at these times.
Graham Moores, 55, who was due to have a CT scan at Wythenshawe Hospital, said: “I’m behind them 100 per cent. It’s the NHS and we have to protect it”.
About 45,000 Junior Doctors will walk out one more time for a second strike, which will last 48 hours between January 26th and 28 if a settlement is not reached this week.
The change would offer an 11 percent pay raise, but the premium offered to doctors working on weekends and late hours on weeknights would disappear.
But a full walkout would see them withdraw all labour, so that the vast majority of hospital consultants would be switched to cope with the most urgent cases.
They key sticking point is the changes to weekend working, which would see junior doctors lose their extra pay for “unsocial hours” on Saturdays.
“Clearly NHS employers and the Government have a different view and I think the sooner we can get to a position where there is one version of the truth and really understand those areas where there continues to be disagreement and to find a resolution to those issues…”
Talks between the BMA and NHS bosses are continuing, with issues including weekend pay and the need for appropriate safeguards in place to stop doctors over-working.
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Junior doctors range from professionals straight out of medical school to anyone with up to a decade of work under their belt.
