Junior doctors strike

I can't honestly believe that people think working in A&E is nice. It is bad enough being admitted there for whatever reason, God only knows how difficult it is working there. Talk about knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing

Wyllow3

"It's a very difficult situation and people will die as a result of this action."
Not picking on you, but how do you know? As far as I can ascertain, none did as a result of the last 3 day action.

Well I don't know and I don't think that you know that they won't. I'm very conflicted but it's not just patients who need treatment over the next four days we should think about, it's the 1000's of patients who won't get the elective treatment that has been cancelled because of the strike. I just wish we could have a cross party approach to trying to sort the NHS out but pigs might fly!

"It's a very difficult situation and people will die as a result of this action."
Not picking on you, but how do you know? As far as I can ascertain, none did as a result of the last 3 day action.

As a retired nurse I absolutely support both striking doctors and nurses. My husband who is on chemotherapy has had excellent immediate treatment from our local A&E department.

TBH I feel very uncomfortable about this four day strike although in principle I support the junior doctors. I saw my cardiac consultant this week and he had been trying to find out which doctors would be in and which would be on strike. They'd been told by the BMA not give this information. He'd also been told by his union not to work for anything less than £238ph (I think this is the rate but it was definitely well over £200) if he worked extra shifts to cover absences. He was an extremely unhappy man! He was very worried about his patients who are often very ill and also about people who have heart attacks during this time as they need immediate care. It's a very difficult situation and people will die as a result of this action. However, if there is an unwillingness to sit down, talk and compromise what can the doctors do? My daughter is a junior doctor, she doesn't work in England but she has resigned from the BMA and would cross the picket line if she had to because she has said she wouldn't want to hold patients to ransom, not all junior doctors support a strike of this length. Sadly it is creating problems in a workforce that is already quite demoralised.

This government is rubbish. Whatever its ideological stance in relation to a national health service, it has a responsibility to ensure the health of the nation - although I suspect many in the Tory party would disagree.

They are out of step with the majority of the voting public and indeed many Tory voters.

This has been incredibly badly handled and its arguments are without merit.

Apparently suddenly we have no money

Tell that to the Mone woman and the failed test and trace which somehow lost billions together with all the PPE monies paid out. Then of course we have thousands spent on MPs expenses like money claimed by Braverman for a second home, when in fact she lives with here parents when in London.

They are taking us and the doctors for fools, but they will eventually discover that we have teeth and will bite really hard when the time comes.

I hope we still have a NHS by then.

The whole thing is a mess. As my memory serves me once the Tories came into power things went on the decline. Within months A&Es closed down and protests were made. Everything was based on centralisation and when A&Es were overwhelmed it was the fault of those turning up. Waits for operations were extended dramatically from the much shorter times that had been offered by the Labour government. Now things have worsened and Covid exposed the weaknesses in the whole situation. Do I want an exhausted doctor to attend to me? Of course not. I would have thought that after all these years their conditions relating to hours worked might have improved and now they are demanding an improvement in pay. Not surprising but like other sector workers conditions are often at the root of the problem. The economy is wobbling and so is everything based on it. I need the NHS and so do the majority of people. The health of the nation is the major priority but it’s workers are treated with disdain.

My young medic dd would have loved to have started her career on a 50K salary.

My dd is an A&E doctor and has worked the Easter weekend. Over the entire weekend the dept has experienced levels of attendance of just one fifth of their normal rate. It seems that chocolate must make everything better.

Thank you Wyllow. My daughter is a doctor and were she in the country, I know she would vote Labour. She tells me that many of her colleagues would do the same. However she’s in New Zealand, thousands of miles away from us, partly, but not wholly, because she was disillusioned with the NHS.

maddyone

^…..hope that these Doctor’s families (many of who have normally been tory voters)^ remember this betrayal in the future.

Just wondering how anyone knows what doctors, or their families, vote in the private ballot box.

I can help out a little bit on this. My BiL and sister are recently retired consultants. BiL came from a family of generations of doctors, traditional, and was brought up in a Tory voting house and used to vote Tory.

This changed slowly as privatisation crept up on us, for the first privatisations creamed off the "Sexy" and financially rewarding bits of the NHS but never the chronic field he worked in. He was totally dedicated and arrived at 6 in the morning and rarely left before 6 in the evening.

As time has gone on and the NHS starved of resources, he could see first hand what was happening and has changed his politics substantially, voting Lib Dem or Labour depending on the constituency.

My sister was always more middle ground. She trained in the 1970's and was the only med student in her group who hadn't gone to a public school.

The students were conservative by nature and the BMA was a pillar of the establishment. We tend to forget this.

The BMA leaders have not changed by some sudden political swing.

It's been their experiences - just like my BiL - from Junior doc up to the most senior consultants - that has made the BMA "political". It is quite a remarkable change and one we need to be aware of: its been the way they have been treated.

I was also not helped by a doctor in A&E a few months ago eazybee. But she was the exception, not the rule.

The government undervalues junior doctors. No wonder they leave to go to work elsewhere, where they can earn more and have a better work life balance.

The government does not have a mandate to destroy the NHS. Pay them what they're due.

I agree with you Gaga.

I think a shift in A+E is anything but nice. Especially if it’s a Saturday night.

ronib

Nice little number for part time gps MaizieD?

Disgusting thing to say. No doctor sees covering A&E as a cash cow.

Says a lot about the poster, and their attitude towards life.

eazybee I am sorry you had a poor experience and hope your fracture is on the mend.

When people are working under pressure for ridiculously long hours mistakes happen and poor decisions are made. The doctors recognise this and that is why they are striking - their working conditions are bad for them and put us all at risk.

Pay is an important secondary issue but has been talked up as if it is the main priority by the media.

volver3

Sometimes when I read posts on here I just want to cry.

Pay them what they're worth for goodness sake.

Hear, hear.

I wonder how long the junior doctor who signed you off by mistake had been on duty. Tired doctors who work long shifts are likely to make mistakes. In any case, someone, maybe a nurse, put your notes into the wrong pile, the pile to be signed off as fit to leave. I don’t expect he/she remembered everyone’s name eazybee.

Sometimes when I read posts on here I just want to cry.

Pay them what they're worth for goodness sake.

The doctors who are striking are responsible for loss of life; I recently spent an unnecessary five hours in A and E with a fracture because a male junior doctor signed me off as needing no treatment, without seeing me. He had signed the wrong form. Sheer incompetence.
The people who are keeping the hospitals running are the extremely professional nurses, senior doctors and consultants; the junior doctors seem full of resentment at their job. Out of three I know well and watched train, one walked out three months after qualifying and never returned, because she couldn't have Christmas Day off; one thought £50,000 was a very poor starting salary and the third went travelling for a long time before working because 'I have worked hard enough.' The two who work now will only work part-time, which they can afford to.
And if the pharmacists and GPs are working in A &E is this not strike breaking? What happens to the customers of the pharmacies (no prescriptions available if the pharmacist is not there) and the patients of the GPs, who have to wait hours and days simply to make an appointment, let alone talk to anyone.
This is bullying and blackmail and I sincerely hope the government does not give in to it.

…..hope that these Doctor’s families (many of who have normally been tory voters) remember this betrayal in the future.

Just wondering how anyone knows what doctors, or their families, vote in the private ballot box.

I agree with Maizie, Wyllow, and anyone else who supports the strikes.

Three cheers Wyllow3 - well said.

I support the doctors. I think it's the government's fault for letting it go on for so long.

Yes it gives me fears for upcoming procedure too but long term we need to keep our doctors and not have them go abroad for better pay as soon as they can. They deserve a substantial rise - not what they've asked for, but substantial.

They are one of our most precious resources and should be treated with respect and frankly gratitude for the work they do.

The government are playing a dangerous game of hoping that public opinion will do there job ad by their inaction all they ae doing is making people suffer.

ronib

Nice little number for part time gps MaizieD?

Hardly that - GP's work ridiculous hours anyway. Maybe they are being public spirited?
Or is that beyond the comprehension of cynics?

ronib

Nice little number for part time gps MaizieD?

I am biting my tongue, ronib. What a nasty thing to say.