Junior doctors in England strike over government reforms

The national strike comes after communication between the British Medical Association (BMA) and Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt MP, surrounding safer work conditions and better pay broke down. The BMA fears that proposals to change the maximum number of working hours per week will put patients at risk in the hands of over-worked, exhausted doctors.

A spokesman said patients should attend medical appointments as planned unless they have been informed otherwise.

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Councillor for Brookvale and Kings Furlong, Jack Cousens joined his fellow Labour councillors on the picket line to show his support for the junior doctors.

It is an absolute privilege to be able to do this job, but we will be working longer hours and we will be more exhausted, and that is going to impact on our decision making.

Dr Anton Sinniah, Acting Medical Director at Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said earlier this week: “Patient safety and the welfare of our patients is the Trust’s top priority”.

Talks are to take place over the next two days in a bid to find a solution to the deadlock between the Government and doctors over a new contract. During this time, a practicing doctor will be a “junior doctor”. The dispute between the Department for Health and the BMA does date back to 2012 when changes to junior doctor contracts were first proposed, but numerous current sticking points such as shift pattern changes, stem from a promise made by Prime Minister David Cameron in the run-up to the 2015 general election to implement a “truly seven-day NHS”.

“Even though junior doctors were on strike, there were still consultants present in the hospital and emergency care remained unaffected”.

He said: “There are some serious issues about patient safety and recognition of junior doctors’ contributions that need to be sorted here and the very fact that government documents refuse to acknowledge those issues is one of the things that makes the dispute more hard to resolve”.

Andy Gibson, a newly qualified doctor, who was at Warwick Hospital today said: “It’s worth saying that we’ve not been on strike for 40 years, but this is such a big issue for us that we’ve had to take this action”.

Junior doctor Mary Gee, who is 18 months into her training, spoke to Key103 about why she is on strike: “I am here today because I think that this contract is fundamentally incredibly unsafe for patients”.

Junior doctors will strike again, for 48 hours, on the 26th of January and again on the 10th of February, when medics-this time including emergency staff-will walk out between 8am and 5pm.