Junior Doctors’ Strike ‘Unnecessary’ says Hunt

JUNIOR doctors in Basingstoke said they had no option but to carry out 24-hour strike action today.

The key sticking point is the changes to weekend working, which would see junior doctors lose their extra pay for “unsocial hours” on Saturdays.

Junior doctors’ dispute: What next? .

Liverpool’s biggest hospital cancelled almost 400 appointments and 55 operations ahead of the junior doctors’ strike.

This is the first strike by junior doctors over pay and conditions since 1975.

Danny Mortimer, the head of NHS Employers, which is representing the Government in negotiations, said he was “desperate” to avoid a repeat of the strike.

Dr Iain Chorlton, chairman at NHS Kernow which commissions care for hospitals in Cornwall, said: “Contingency plans are in place locally to minimise any potential disruption to patients and ensure that safety and care is maintained, during the planned national industrial action by junior doctors”.

“The biggest threat to patient care is the government’s insistence on removing safeguards which prevent junior doctors from being forced to work dangerously long hours without breaks, with patients facing the prospect of being treated by exhausted doctors”.

Dozens of doctors, nurses and NHS staff braved the cold to man the picket line at Royal Lancaster (RLI) Infirmary on Tuesday.

Junior doctors are being told by their union not to treat any patients at all, even those needing emergency A&E treatment, from 8am to 5pm on February 10 during what will be one of the busiest times of the week.

Just one day after the British junior doctors’ strike, attempts have already begun to avert a second strike by the doctors.

A spokesman for the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) said talks would resume on Thursday at 10am, continuing on Friday.

Carrying banners which read “Devalued, Demoralised, Depressed, ‘ and ‘Tired doctors make mistakes”, the medics expressed their anger about the government’s plan to bring in new contracts.

The hospital said it needed all of its trainee doctors to abandon industrial action immediately because “a very high number of patients have been admitted over the past two days”. Residents previously planned to strike in December, but postponed it in the hopes of negotiating with NHS.

Thousands of routine procedures were cancelled but emergency care was still available today, as junior doctors-that is, those at a level up to but not including consultant-walked out.

Take a look at how hospitals and patients have been preparing for the strike here…