‘They’re fighting for a dying NHS and reasonable working conditions’
Consultant, infection, London
What are you doing on strike days? I will be the sole doctor covering the department (usually eight doctors).
How do you feel about junior doctors staging a full walkout? They are fighting for a dying NHS and reasonable working conditions. This is the culmination of years of abuse. My take home salary is 10% lower than it was in 2004 but I have moved from being an senior house officer to a consultant. My contracted hours are exactly the same. Juniors today are so poorly paid they can’t hope to pay off their medical school debts for many years and buying a home is utter fantasy in London.
What do you think should happen next? Indefinite strike
‘I don’t support any strike by frontline health staff’
Medical HR manager, Lancashire
What are you doing on strike days? We are already prepared for ensuring our services are covered by senior clinicians on both days. We will be establishing how many doctors attend on each day and informing NHS England.
How do you feel about junior doctors staging a full walkout? I think the British Medical Association (BMA) has muddled the dispute with a much broader issues regarding privatisation and funding. Having worked with junior doctors and their contracts for over 20 years, this contract reduces hours universally, provides better safeguards and for those who work the hardest, and offers significant pay increases. The dispute has also been mishandled by Jeremy Hunt, but the Department of Health is right to proceed with the terms, having made concessions along the way, not replicated by the BMA.
I don’t support any strike by frontline health staff – it causes distress and harm to patients. We should be preventing that and finding more diplomatic, and if necessary conciliatory, means to reach agreement.
What will happen next? The contract will not be renegotiated. I should be dreading the implementation, but apart from the workload associated with this, I believe doctors will begin to see the positives.
‘The thought of starting as a junior doctor on the new contract is scary’
Hamish Lowdon, medical student, Warwick
What are you doing on strike days? Struggling through another 12-hour shift revising in the library – something that comes harder with Jeremy Hunt’s rhetoric bringing morale further down.
How do you feel about the strike? If Hunt refuses to negotiate with the BMA and continues with imposition, I will be one of the first doctors to sign the new contract (pending me passing my finals). Being a student I am unable to strike. The thought of starting as a junior doctor on this contract is one of the scariest things I have ever faced. I am 100% behind the junior doctors.
What should happen next? Jeremy Hunt should apologise and restart meaningful negotiations. If he is too arrogant to apologise then he should resign.
‘It will be so tough without the junior doctors during the strike’
Staff nurse, paediatric intensive care, London
What are you doing on strike days? I am working both of them.
How do you feel about it? It will be so tough on our unit without the junior doctors for the two days; we rely heavily on them to help us as a nursing team and they make all the decisions. I hope there will be more consultant cover but we haven’t really been told about what will happen. The fact that we rely so much on junior doctors clarifies for me why we must support their strike; it’s not ideal for anyone but we cannot do without them in the longer term, and if this contract gets pushed through we will end up with fewer junior doctors on each shift and the ones we have will be exhausted and demoralised.
I feel like they are not just fighting for themselves they are fighting for us too – if doctors lose their unsocial hours pay then nurses will be next. I don’t want to have to walk away from my dream job just because I don’t earn enough to live.
‘Further strikes would be futile, damaging and dangerous’
Ben Norris, junior doctor, general medicine, south England
What are you doing on strike days? Attending work as normal.
How do you feel about the strike? I’m concerned that some of my colleagues joining the strike are doing so without having studied the proposed terms in detail. It’s extremely worrying how many junior doctors I’ve spoken to are either wrong or misinformed about basic aspects of a contract they purport to oppose. I’m also worried. How much further will this go? I cannot countenance an indefinite walkout.
What should happen next? I don’t believe the contract in its current form is as destructive as some of my colleagues think – on the contrary, there are many positive aspects. I would be prepared to accept it. However, as the BMA needs to save some face, I hope they will drop their blanket refusal to discuss rates of Saturday pay. This was the sole reason the last round of otherwise productive negotiations broke down. Doing so could reopen talks – the significant movement of the government on this particular issue demonstrates they have been prepared to compromise; the BMA may win further concessions on this issue yet, in addition to more concrete assurances on safety and equality. Further strikes would be futile, damaging and dangerous.
‘The strike is having a big impact on my own stress and workload’
Pharmacist, London
What are you doing on strike days? Working to provide extra clinical cover. The pharmacy workforce is being significantly redeployed on strike days to cover suitable activities that junior doctors are not there to perform (such as independent prescribers).
How do you feel about the strikes? Initially very supportive but now wearily so, as they are having a significant impact on my own stress and workload.
What should happen next? Junior doctors should attempt other ways to make this protest outside of withdrawal of labour. Hospitals do their utmost to ensure the impact has as little effect as possible. That is completely necessary, but ends up reducing the impact entirely as everyone else scurries around to keep things going.
‘Junior doctors are striking for the benefit of all NHS staff’
District nurse, community, Derbyshire
What do you think about the strike? Although I may not fully agree with the potential impact on patients (and nurses who will be bearing the weight), they are doing this on principle for the benefit of all NHS staff. If the precedent for reducing unsocial hours is set, it would be catastrophic for nurses – we would see a lot more leave the profession, or their jobs to become agency nurses.
What needs to happen? Jeremy Hunt needs to go. He is too much of a hate figure and is detracting from real points of discussion. They need to sit back down with a cross-party panel and find out from the frontline what would work best.
If you are a healthcare professional, please tell us your view about the strikes.
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