Junior Doctors’ Strike: Hospitals Braced to Order Medics to Work

“We have now asked ACAS [the arbitration service] to reconvene talks in the hope the BMA will return to sensible negotiations”, Hunt said.

“This is a wholly unnecessary dispute. We want all NHS patients to have the confidence that they will get the same high-quality care every day of the week”.

A spokesman for the BMA said the figure of nearly 40% working was unsurprising.

“The simple fact is that the Government can not ignore the thousands who have today made it quite clear what they think of the Government’s plans”.

That’s according to the York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which operates Scarborough and Bridlington Hospitals.

Junior doctors range from professionals straight out of medical school to anyone with up to a decade of work under their belt.

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.

“Everyone who came past was really supportive”.

The second one, which is supposed to take place next month, would be a complete walkout – so juniors doctors wouldn’t even step in to provide emergency care if it was needed. Junior doctors will be protesting outside the hospital from 9am to 6pm.

Twenty-thousand operations and appointments were cancelled because of Tuesday’s strikes, but the British Medical Association (BMA), the body which called the strike, is planning two more.

The change would offer an 11 percent pay raise, but the premium offered to doctors working on weekends and late hours on weeknights would disappear.

But one hospital in the Midlands was forced to order junior medics to work as it struggled to cope with patient numbers.

In total some 209 doctors would normally be working on a Tuesday, the majority of these – 90 – are foundation level doctors.

He said: “There are some serious issues about patient safety and recognition of junior doctors’ contributions that need to be sorted here”.

The first strike was due to end at 8am on Wednesday.

This will be followed by further strikes.

The doctors – medical-school graduates training to be consultants or family practitioners – are providing emergency care for only the 24 hours that started at 8am London time.

Junior doctors and supporters picketed outside Scarborough Hospital today united with the national strike against the government’s new contracts.

Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, claimed that 15 of the 16 issues had been resolved. “It means that we have been able to get our message across”. “We need to be able to look after our patients the very best we can”.