United Kingdom rookie doctors challenge new after-hours pay plans

There will be a further 48-hour stoppage from 08:00 GMT on January 26, and a full withdrawal of labor on February 10.

JUNIOR doctors are on strike today over proposed changes to their contract by government.

“All available consultants are working in the hospital, two-hourly meetings reviewing the situation are being held throughout the day and into the evening and some routine appointments and procedures have been rearranged to allow staff to focus on delivering inpatient, emergency and urgent care”. They are qualified medical practitioners who are working while studying for qualifications to take more senior roles.

Health workers across the NHS are in support of the junior doctors’ refusal to accept changes to their unsocial hours payments that Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt MP has been attempting to impose, says Unison.

BMA junior doctors’ leader Johann Malawana posted a video on the organization’s Twitter account explaining the reasons for action.

The trust say today’s strike has led to the cancellation of 68 outpatient appointments and 13 elective surgical cases at the county’s three hospital sites.

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.

The walkout comes after talks between the union and the government failed to reach agreement on the new contract.

BMA chiefs previously claimed that hospitals would “move” the goalposts by declaring emergencies to force doctors off the picket lines.

“We are really against detrimental changes that would affect the safety of patients and the fair treatment of current and future doctors”.

The BMA said that, after agreeing to postpone industrial action, progress in talks had been slow and issues surrounding pay and working hours are unresolved.

Unite head of health Barrie Brown said: “Unite’s 100,000 members in the health service will be giving the doctors maximum support within the bounds of the law by joining protests outside their working hours and taking to social media to highlight their support”.

An NHS England spokesman said: “We have tried and tested plans to deal with a range of disruptions including industrial action”. We know that it’s upsetting for our patients and it upsets us.

Junior doctor David Restall, who is now based at Chesterfield Royal, said: “The thing that we are most adverse to is that these plans will have a huge impact on us and this will not be safe for our patients”.