Junior doctors in state-run National Health Service hospitals in England will resume talks Thursday to avert further strikes over a new contract changing the way they’re paid and reducing compensation for evening and weekend work.
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JUNIOR doctors in Basingstoke said they had no option but to carry out 24-hour strike action today.
Junior doctors are locked in a dispute with the Government over a new contract affecting their pay and hours.
British Medical Association (BMA) council chairman Dr Mark Porter said neither side wanted the dispute to go on “indefinitely” and urged the Government to “recognise the strength of feeling” among medics.
Two further strikes are planned, the second of which – on 10 February – would involve a refusal to take part in emergency care.
“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”.
The Leeds junior doctor protest.
“We have been working with the doctors’ representatives and our clinical teams to build a picture of the likely impact of today’s strike to ensure that, wherever possible, essential services can continue without compromising patient safety”.
The demand has sparked a war of words with the doctors’ union which has advised its members to ignore the plea to go back to work at Sandwell Hospital. “That’s why so many of them across England will be joining picket lines during their breaks and lunchtimes tomorrow to show the health secretary that, while everyone wants to see a seven day NHS, his approach to achieving it is completely wrong”.
The walkout comes after talks between the union and the government failed to reach agreement on the new contract. I’m sure it’s also affecting those considering becoming doctors in the future, putting them off a career in medicine as they think they will be overworked.
JUNIOR doctors, striking over controversial Government changes to their working hours and pay, returned to work yesterday morning but strike action caused more disruption that initially thought.
There are more than 55,000 junior doctors in Britain, making up a third of the medical workforce.
Junior doctors strikes across the region were a success, it has been claimed.
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Industrial action was originally planned for December, but the BMA agreed to postpone a strike to allow fresh talks to take place.
