English doctors on strike over pay – 1/12/2016 12:59:41 PM

A spokeswoman from West Suffolk Hospital said: “We have an excellent relationship with our junior doctors and worked closely with them and our consultants in the run up to the planned industrial action to put contingency plans in place”.

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

This infuriated the British Medical Association whose head Dr Mark Porter said in a response: “Your letter to medical directors has been interpreted by many doctors as a further attempt to thwart lawful industrial action in favour of which junior doctors voted nearly unanimously”.

It is hoped the disagreement over the new contract Jeremy Hunt wants to impose on junior doctors, which changes the deal medics get on weekend working, can be settled before the next 48-hour strike from 26 to 28 January.

Thousands of doctors in England went on strike Tuesday causing widespread disruption to medical services across the country.

The BMA said the strike was sending a “clear message” to the government.

In the first walk out of its kind in 40 years, doctors manned a picket line outside the hospital after a long-running dispute over changes to pay and working conditions.

“We went into training to help people and to provide care for everyone and the new process will be very damaging as you will have a lot of exhausted doctors working unmonitored hours”.

The doctors’ union – The British Medical Association (BMA) – say there are 53,000 junior doctors in England.

Roughly 4,000 nonurgent operations were cancelled as a result of the strike, and it potentially could create “real difficulties for patients, and potentially worse”, Prime Minister David Cameron said, according to the report. “If patients are unsure then they should ring the number on the top of their appointment letter”.

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

“They want to force a contract on junior doctors which threatens the quality of care patients receive”.

With fewer medics on hand, A&E will be even busier than usual and many casualty units are on “black alert”, – diverting ambulances to other hospitals.

While it’s true that pay and hours are important factors in the negotiation between the BMA and the department for health, it seems the public is confused over what problems junior doctors actually have with the contract that has been offered to them.