Now hospitals that overwork junior doctors face financial penalties, but these would be removed under the new contract. Patients can really help us by taking the appropriate action to treat their condition, which might mean contacting NHS 111 or attending a pharmacy. “They don’t deserve exhausted, stressed, overworked doctors”, a former junior doctor told The Guardian.
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British Medical Association (BMA) local negotiating committee member Dr Niki Fitzgerald said: “We didn’t want to get to this point”.
NHS England said 39% of junior doctors out of a possible 26,000 had reported for work (including urgent and emergency care doctors). It is an absolute privilege to be able to do this job, but we will be working longer hours and we will be more exhausted, and that is going to impact on our decision making.
Thousands of junior doctors in England staged a 24-hour strike on Tuesday over pay and working hours disputes with Britain’s health authorities. He warned that it would cause “real difficulties for patients and potentially worse”.
Junior doctors held a protest in Exeter city centre today as they joined the first strike in the history of the NHS. She said, “I’m striking today because I have solidarity with all of the doctors, and we’re concerned about the future of the NHS”.
The BMA has accused the Government of continuing to fail to address junior doctors’ concerns about the need for “robust contractual safeguards” on safe working, and “proper recognition” for those working unsocial hours.
Despite talks to prevent the strike, around 4,000 operations and procedures have been cancelled, with thousands more routine appointments also postponed.
Junior doctors range from professionals straight out of medical school to anyone with up to a decade of work under their belt.
Junior doctors have come out in force on strike today across Greater Manchester in a dispute with the government over a new contract.
The Government wants to cut the number of hours classed as unsociable, meaning these doctors will earn less money for evening and weekend work.
The union is planning another 48-hour stoppage later this month and a full withdrawal of labour, including emergency care, for nine hours on February 10.
They were led by the guitar-wielding Davey Thaxter, the trust’s junior doctor BMA representative and Andrew Peetamsingh, a junior anaesthetist, in chants of “Save our NHS”.
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Junior doctors strikes across the region were a success, it has been claimed.
