Talks to resume in junior doctors dispute

“Doctors don’t normally go on strike, because we want to spend our time caring for our patients”.

“This is a wholly unnecessary dispute”.

“Those patients are now at the top of the priority list to be rescheduled and we will see them as quickly as possible”.

Rab McEwan, interim chief operating officer, said: “We planned ahead to make sure we were ready for yesterday’s industrial action, and that planning paid off because our hospitals ran smoothly on the day”. Fewer people are also applying for medical school, presumably because they have heard the rumours that junior doctors in England are getting a raw deal.

Bridget Riley, who refused to return to work at the hospital, said that Junior Doctors should only be ordered to work if the incident was “unpredictable”, rather than something that was known about on Monday. “Elective procedures have been cancelled so really this is no different to Sunday, should you come into hospital on a Sunday”.

A BMA regional spokesperson said: “We would like to thank the many members of public who showed their support”.

Across the country, up to 45,000 junior doctors were part of the industrial action, with nearly 4,000 operations and 17,500 outpatient appointments cancelled. “But after two years of the BMA attempting to reach a resolution there has been a complete breakdown of trust between Jeremy Hunt and junior doctors and he continues to threaten to impose an unsafe and unfair contract”.

The BMA claims the new contract fails to protect junior doctors working long hours and would unfairly cut out of hours pay, whereas the Government says its new safeguards will provide protection junior doctors and points to its offer of an 11 per cent rise in basic pay.

Junior Doctors also have severe concerns about the quality of care patients will receive.

This will be followed by further strikes.

The doctors will again go on a two day strike on 26 January and a third action is planned for February if the talks do not reach an agreement. If progress in negotiations isn’t made by then, a nine-hour full walk-out of tens of thousands of junior doctors in England could take place on February 10, which will take the amount of pressure on hospitals to a whole new level.

STRIKING junior doctors have formed a picket line at Worcestershire Royal Hospital as part of 24 hour walkout over the Government’s proposed changes to their working hours and pay.