Flight of fancy - protest against doctors’ strike

If you feel strongly, then why not?
Either way, though I acknowledge they are overworked, I think the doctors on strike are wasting valuable time when they could be getting the NHS into better shape.
There's no organised picket lines in my county or the neighbouring one. I'd need to travel nearly 100 miles, so instead I'm off now to walk the dogs on the moor.
Good luck!

Go for it ronib, we’ll look forward to seeing you on the news tonight!

Husband definitely thinks I will be arrested as a right wing nutter ….. he’s horrified at the idea!!

I think you should go, take your placard but take the opportunity talk to some young doctors. There was a podcast yesterday from the Times in their " The Story" series that you might find interesting to listen to while you stand around. Only 30 minutes long with facts and figures. Good luck and do take a pic or two.

I think I might write to the two leaders of the BMA this time around. My niece was a junior doctor and I remember her frustration at having to manage on a starting salary. However she is extremely wealthy now having resigned as a gp and married up . Leaving the country now.
foxie48

Is the hospital nearby? I wouldn't go too far as the picket may have gone for lunch or something- it will probably be low-key unless there are cameras around.

Like above poster said- go and speak to them, start a dialogue otherwise you may finish up starting something you may later regret, especially if you post it on-line.

The striking doctors have a right to picket and you will just be either ignored, or you may find yourself being manipulated by the media, or spoken to by the police.

This is what Leah Hazard (a midwife) says in the New Statesman about the strike -
. "My previous diary for the New Statesman was headlined “Why junior doctors are right to strike”. That was 10 January 2024. Eighteen months later, here we are again. Resident doctors (now the preferred term) are still underpaid – 22.6 per cent less in real terms than they were in 2008-09. Strikes will begin on 25 July after 90 per cent of voters in a recent British Medical Association ballot supported industrial action. The only significant difference between these imminent strikes and those of January 2024 is the ruling party: with Labour in government, it’s no longer possible to blame the Tories exclusively for breaking the NHS. The Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, has already warned doctors that “the public won’t forgive them”, and that increasing their pay “wouldn’t be fair to other NHS workers either, many of whom are paid less”. Hardly a break from unsympathetic Tory tradition .

. I must declare a vested interest here. As a midwife, I am one of those “other NHS workers” on a comparatively lower wage. The recent 3.6 per cent pay uplift offered to midwives in England, Wales and Northern Ireland “barely covers an inflationary rise”, according to the Royal College of Midwives, while a two-year pay offer of 8.1 per cent to those in Scotland just squeaks past the expected rate of inflation. This bare-minimum recognition of midwives’ value undoubtedly contributes to our profession’s recruitment and retention crisis, and it can’t be unrelated to our disproportionately high rates of poor mental health .

. But far from resenting our colleagues’ fight for fair pay, many of us support resident doctors unequivocally. We hope that full pay restoration for medical staff will set a precedent that might eventually benefit all NHS workers. A rising tide lifts all boats, even if, as Streeting suggests, the public wants us to drown in our own avarice . www.newstatesman.com/diary/2025/07/why-junior-doctors-are-right-to-strike-back

I think these salary omparisons are pointless. Most professions and ocuupations have periods when salaries slow down and times when they rise faster than average. My son is an academic, their salaries are also relatively less than they were.

Each salary should be seen within its times. Currently doctors are doing very well thank you, as are many others in the NHS, it is all those patients in pain and on long waiting lists or dying because treatment is delayed that we should be thinking of.

Go for it. The doctors are shooting themselves in the foot.
www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/nhs-resident-doctors-strike-start-operations-b2795250.html

Another boring strike by doctors who earn far more in wages yearly than the average Joe on the street. One of my friends is a doctor at a surgery; she's seriously making a substantial amount of money, is always at the surgery or working nights in A&E, and has absolutely no time for the strikers at all.

They're being excessively greedy and selfish, and they should be told to return to work by a certain time or face the consequences.

Their never-ending whining excuse is ''but we're overworked and exhausted.

But nobody FORCES them to be medics, it's their own choice, and they had an idea of what sort of hours they'd be doing when they first started training.

The ''overworked and exhausted'' thing easily applies to cleaners, shop workers, bus drivers and a whole load of other jobs! I fully agree with my doctor friend!

I worked as a hospital cleaner 50 years ago and the admin staff were overpaid then

I've no patience with the doctors this time. Get back to work, is what I think they should do.

M0nica

I think these salary omparisons are pointless. Most professions and ocuupations have periods when salaries slow down and times when they rise faster than average. My son is an academic, their salaries are also relatively less than they were.

Each salary should be seen within its times. Currently doctors are doing very well thank you, as are many others in the NHS, it is all those patients in pain and on long waiting lists or dying because treatment is delayed that we should be thinking of.

I agree with that.

Ronib I would join you on the picket line if I could, Doctors' and nurses' employment should be run on military lines so that striking is rebellion and a case for court martial.

The thing is if you don't pay them and value them they will go abroad where they are paid enough and valued.
Full disclosure, my daughter is a resident doctor aged 27. She knew the salary but had no idea that 10 hour shifts actually turn into 13 hour shifts with no breaks and nowhere to eat anyway, she had no idea she would be thrust into being the only on call doctor for 2 major hospitals overnight, no idea about the tutoring, lecturing, conferences and papers she would have to write in order to even be considered to go on to the next stage after the first 2 years ( all in her own time), no idea about the cost of indemnity fees, parking, compulsory membership fees, insurance etc. She foolishly didn't belive all of the horror stories she read about junior doctors being exhausted yet she is the one who walked into a lamp post practically sleep walking g home after a 13 hour night shift with no food.

She completed her first year after university in a deanery 100 miles from home, moving the next year to a town 35 miles from that so having to move again. She then spent the next 2 years writing papers, lecturing etc to get enough points to be able to even apply for the next 3 years training. Her friends mostly went to Australia and that's where they are staying. She got on the next training path - again another 50 miles away. Next year she will be in the next county, the year after she has not been told yet. After that she will have to compete again to get on to the next training stage. All that time she has lived in a succession of HMOs and shared houses, continually being bombarded with emails from Australia and NZ offering accommodation, more money, less hours and a great lifestyle. She is exhausted already and disillusioned at the working conditions. That £97k student debt is rising all the time.

We will be losing more and more of our well trained young doctors and it will be our own fault for not valuing their expertise anymore than we value the Saturday girl barista in Costa Coffee in monetary terms and work conditions. At least Costa probably gets free coffee.

She really wants to work in geriatrics, it will be our generation that misses her most if she doesn't stay. Protest if you like but they will be off if no one listens

Surely it would be better for doctors if their actual workloads and the way we train doctors was investigated?

My son is a doctor. He actually doesn't want the strike, but is adamant that there must be a better way to train and use doctors than we currently do.

I agree AmberGran, this is not just about money

I wish that the BMA had a realistic plan to set before the government. It seems highly unlikely that a 29 percent pay raise is on the table.
No one wants young doctors exhausted and exploited however. Although currently it’s not just medics who are being exploited by employers!

ronib

Husband definitely thinks I will be arrested as a right wing nutter ….. he’s horrified at the idea!!

I don’t see the correlation there must say.Why right wing?
Wes Streeting isn’t and he’s against this strike.
The BMA have gradually been influenced by the extreme left and are advising doctors badly.

We need more medical places at university and more posts in the NHS.

The previous strikes were around this time last year, before KS took over and settled with the pay rise offered by Labour.

The newly designated resident doctors are hopeful for further success with Labour this year.

GeorgeKirrin I’ve heard of the problems you mention from sons of a teaching colleague.

That makes AmberGran’s point below even more important.

Surely it would be better for doctors if their actual workloads and the way we train doctors was investigated

Also the need to highlight Grantanow’s
point
We need more medical places at university and more posts in the NHS.
Without that, however much pay is awarded, if there aren’t sufficient doctors, the resident doctors will simply be richer but still
exhausted and disillusioned at the working conditions.

They need to sort out the current training situation before they create more training places. It's a complete mess and is a huge factor in causing low morale.
Many doctors will be paying off their loans for the whole of their career. Every increase salary gets hit with a 9% repayment , whilst interest is added at around 7.5%. This affects doctors from poorer families the most as they need to borrow the most to get them through a 5/6 year course or a 7 year course if they follow the post grad route.

Ambergran ,GeorgeKirren I also have resident doctor in the family. She's 9 years post graduation and passed her final fellowship exams this year but still has some training left before she can apply for a consultant's post but she won't apply until she is confident that she's ready for the role. As an anaesthetist she has to have enough experience to deal with any emergency that's thrown at her in surgery. I don't think the general public have any idea of the stress that goes with some of the roles or the degree of training and experience that is needed to be consultant. Many doctors either never aspire to that level or fail to pass the exams which are very difficult. Daughter's friend has failed her final exams three times so far despite being perfectly competent in surgery she just can't do well enough in the vivas!

Labour gave way too easily a year ago so the doctors see them as a soft touch.