Placard-waving doctors surrounded every major hospital in Yorkshire on Tuesday to show their discontent over Government’s proposed changes to their working contracts, which the BMA sees as “unsafe and unfair”. But when Ipsos MORI asked the same people why they thought junior doctors were planning to strike.
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The doctors are striking because they believe the new pay contract offered by the government could extend their “routine” (basic pay) working hours from 60 hours a week to 90, meaning that they would no longer be paid extra for working nights or weekends.
The British Medical Association (BMA) and the Government will return to the negotiating table for two days from 10am on Thursday, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) said.
But even now, Sandwell Hospital in West Bromwich has declared a level 4 incident and told its junior doctors they must attend work, a statement from Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust said. “They don’t deserve exhausted, stressed, overworked doctors”, a former junior doctor told The Guardian.
Significant disagreements still exist between the BMA and the government over pay, safety, and working hours, according to a position paper by the BMA.
But the action was criticised by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who described the strike as “wholly unnecessary” and “very disappointing”.
She said they had moved to reassure them that there were other junior doctors still on duty in the hospital dealing with emergencies and other urgent cases.
“We will be contacting patients individually if their appointment or operation needs to be rescheduled”. The Government and the BMA are well aware of the serious impact a full strike could have.
A 27-year-old woman – who wished to remain anonymous – who has been a junior doctor for three years said: “If they are not bringing in any more doctors than the service will be more thinly spread than it already us”. The dispute between the Department for Health and the BMA does date back to 2012 when changes to junior doctor contracts were first proposed, but numerous current sticking points such as shift pattern changes, stem from a promise made by Prime Minister David Cameron in the run-up to the 2015 general election to implement a “truly seven-day NHS”.
Junior Doctors also have severe concerns about the quality of care patients will receive.
This will be followed by further strikes.
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More industrial action is planned for Tuesday January 26 when junior doctors will again only provide emergency care, and if an agreement is not reached by Wednesday February 10 junior doctors plan to withhold all labour, including emergency care for nine hours.
