They all claimed the imposed contract is part of the Government’s “long-term plan to drive down wages in order to privatise the NHS”.
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The dispute between is over the their new contract which doctors fear will put patients’ safety at risk, while the Government argue it will help enforce a new and safe 24/7 NHS.
“The fact [Jeremy Hunt] is imposing it based on what he calls evidence just to prove that the disruption is purely down to junior doctors is deceitful and that is what angers people”.
Striking junior doctors in Slough have warned Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt they “owe it to their profession” to keep fighting a proposed new contract.
The NHS had five weeks to prepare for the strike.
The strike will finish at 5pm.
The junior doctors who were picketing outside James Cook were all fully qualified medics and insisted the hospital was running smoothly in their absence.
The first all-out walkout by junior doctors in NHS history took place on Tuesday and yesterday.
Junior doctors launched their first “all-out” strike this week, over two days, and refused to cover even A&E care – an escalation on previous strikes.
Neil Rothnie, medical director and consultant surgeon at Southend Hospital, said: “Today’s industrial action saw a total of 112 junior doctors absent from duty”.
“At a time when there is a desperate shortage of junior doctors, the Health Secretary has tied their hands and given them no option but to leave the NHS that they love and want to serve”.
She said: “I am looking at alternatives and have applied for different jobs for next year because I don’t know what these contracts will look like, it is pretty scary”.
He said the doctors’ demands relate to a set of “critical issues concerning work-life balance, excessive working hours, improvements in training and crucially, workforce and funding implications for seven-day services”.
“We may need to reschedule some patient appointments, and decisions to reschedule appointments will be made by the patient’s specific doctor”. But they have not been used by any NHS trust yet.
Across England on Tuesday, hospitals appeared to cope well, with low waiting times across A&E departments and no urgent calls for doctors to return from the picket lines.
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Further industrial action is yet to be confirmed, but is likely, given that the government still shows no signs yet of backing down on its demands.
