A doctor’s primary duty of care is to look after patients, and to go on strike seemingly contradicts this basic principle.
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Medics at Sandwell Hospital in West Bromwich have been told they must attend work on Tuesday, a statement from Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust said.
They collected more signatures for a petition backing their contract fight in the “Meet the Doctors” event, the first since November past year.
Many appointments and procedures have been postponed, but the doctors said that the A&E department was fully staffed and they would return to work in response to a major emergency.
“Staff taking action at City Hospital in Birmingham are unaffected”.
They have also asked that the new contract “doesn’t disadvantage those doctors who work less than full time or who take parental leave”.
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 BMA is concerned about pay for weekend working, career progression and safeguards to protect doctors from being over-worked.
At the George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton, a picket line was set up at the Heath End Road entrance, with bosses at the Trust cancelling five operations and 29 outpatient appointments.
Senior house officer in cardiology Dr Claire Coyle said: “Tired doctors make mistakes and that is why it is so disappointing the government has failed to engage with our concerns about safe guarding junior doctor working hours”.
Junior doctor Mary Gee, who is 18 months into her training, spoke to Key103 about why she is on strike: “I am here today because I think that this contract is fundamentally incredibly unsafe for patients”.
Doctors fear patient safety could be affected if the government’s new plans go ahead.
If no resolution is found, there will be a 48-hour stoppage and the provision of emergency care only from 8am on Tuesday, January 26.
The British Medical Association has said there are still several areas of dispute, despite Mr Hunt saying the only sticking point is weekend pay.
It’s also surprising that only 3% of those questioned by Ipsos MORI thought that the strike was over “seven-day services in the NHS”. During this time, a practicing doctor will be a “junior doctor”.
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Trainee doctors in England will provide emergency-only care during the strike, similar to the medical service offered on Christmas Day in the country.
