Thousands of UK doctors strike in pay dispute

Junior doctors picket outside The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham during a 24-hour strike across the NHS on January 12, in Birmingham, UK.

JUNIOR doctors in North Devon are staging a 24-hours strike in protest of planned changes to working contracts.

There are more than 50,000 junior doctors in England – a position covering people who have just graduated from medical school through to those with more than a decade of experience.

A spokesman for the Airedale NHS Foundation Trust said “between five and 15” operations and procedures had been cancelled.

“Junior doctors feel they have been left with no option but to take this action”, said Johann Malawana, chair of the British Medical Association’s junior doctors committee.

Emergency services at the hospital will be fully staffed. Masood said support for the strike among the doctors was overwhelming.

More than 150 picket lines and “meet the doctor” events have been held nationally. The Conservative government says the reforms are needed to help create a “seven days a week” NHS where the quality of care is as high at the weekends as on weekdays.

“As a junior doctor I see what happens on the wards and I want to continue to provide the best care that I can for my patients, because I believe that that’s my active service”.

Harrogate Hospital has confirmed that around 40 outpatient appointments have been re-arranged, but all surgical operations will go ahead as planned. This is about making sure junior doctors are given a fair contact and that safeguards for patient safety are protected.

Ministers offered an 11% pay rise in basic pay past year – but doctors claim that reductions in out-of-hours pay will leave them with less money overall. “We are already working on a plan to minimise disruption during the 48-hour strike scheduled to take place later this month and are hoping to keep the number of postponed appointments as low as possible once again”.

Sixteen per cent said they opposed action even with emergency care being provided, with the remainder saying they neither supported nor opposed.

“Patients will be contacted directly by the hospital to reschedule any cancelled appointments”.

There will also be a full walkout between 8am and 5pm on Wednesday, February 10.

The strike is the result of a long-running dispute between the government and junior doctors after talks broke down between the two parties in 2014.