Junior Doctor's Strike - Just Wrong

So they have been and gone and done it. The junior doctors have gone on strike. Why? Apparently, because changes the government wish to make will put patients at risk. Really? Will those changes put patients as much at risk as there being no doctors available to see sick people in hospital? If the answer to that is yes then they may have a point. Obviously, it is no.

Thousands of appointments have been cancelled today. That is going to mean that patients who need to be seen are not going to be seen. Patients referred to Secondary Care by their GPs who may have waited weeks to be seen at hospital will now not be seen and will have to wait weeks to get another appointment. Patients put at risk? You decide.

What this is really about is money and not working more weekends than happens at the moment. Junior doctors will tell you they will work more hours whilst at the same time the maximum working week for junior doctors will reduce from 91 hours a week at present to 72 hours. I have heard that there will be a 30% reduction in earnings for these junior doctors. That has been debunked. Yes there will be a reduction in unsocial hours payments but there will also be an 11% pay rise on basic pay. That will mean that the basic salary for the most junior doctors just starting in hospitals will be above £25,000 a year plus the benefits. In the second year that will be well over £30,000.

More doctors working at weekends is essential to provide a 7 day a week Secondary Care system that is safe. At the moment that is not the case. At this time, for a patient arriving in hospital on a Saturday or Sunday there is a 15% greater chance that they will die. Is that really what we want to see?

The British Medical Association (BMA) have pressed the nuclear button here. If this series of strikes, yes there are 3 planned at the moment so patients keep your fingers crossed, does not work; what then? Longer strikes? More patients lives put at risk? Where does the BMA go from here in regard to this? I think we, as the people that pay for the NHS, should be really worried. Will the hardliners at the BMA be prepared to back down? Will they put the patients first as all medical professionals are required to do? Interesting questions.

Having worked within the NHS for 9 years, I have huge respect for the medical profession at all levels but in this case I think the BMA and the junior doctors who are walking out of hospitals and GP surgeries are completely wrong to do so. They ARE putting patients at risk. There is no doubt about that. In the end that should be the most important consideration.

There should be further negotiation with the government regarding all of this. So come on you healers, you savers of life and reducers of suffering. Do it now. For the patients.