The striking doctors say the Government’s proposed new contract will endanger patients by over-working them, but ministers say they need changes to improve weekend care.
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A Conservative MP elected in 2015 told Business Insider that “no strike should threaten emergency care” and the strikes are “disappointing and risky”.
The legacy of this strike will be long-lasting and harmful to all concerned, including the patients, whose interests the BMA claims to represent but doesn’t, and to the reputations of junior doctors.
Thousands of junior doctors have walked off the job in England in a dispute over pay and working conditions – the first such strike in 40 years.
Bridget Riley, who refused to return to work at the hospital, said that Junior Doctors should only be ordered to work if the incident was “unpredictable”, rather than something that was known about on Monday.
“We are also advising them that should the strike dates get postponed nationally at such short notice that we would have no chance of contacting them, then they should attend their appointment as normal”.
The row centres around a proposed new contract for junior doctors.
“We will do everything we can to mitigate its effects but you cannot have a strike on this scale in our NHS without real difficulties for patients and potentially worse”.
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 after two years of the BMA attempting to reach a resolution there has been a complete breakdown of trust between Jeremy Hunt and junior doctors and he continues to threaten to impose an unsafe and unfair contract”.
Junior Doctors also have severe concerns about the quality of care patients will receive.
It is double the length of the first strike, so such issues with capacity are likely to be amplified next time around.
This will be followed by two further spells of strike action, with a 48-hour stoppage and the provision of emergency care only from 8am on Tuesday January 26. An “all-out” strike is planned for 10 February.
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In a letter to NHS bosses last week, the Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust chief executive said: “It is really important that at this crucial stage I really listen to everyone and craft a solution which is safe and fair and commands support”.
