I can’t remember the last time doctors even considered taking industrial action.
The consultants in my hospital have been aware of the junior doctor dispute for a long time. And I had a feeling that most of my colleagues were supportive of the position junior doctors have found themselves in. But I wanted to find out how many of my colleague consultants supported the strike. So I sent an email out with a question, and I wanted a simple yes or no answer.
Should the BMA ballot result in a decision to take industrial action would you support your/our junior doctors? Yes/No
The response was an overwhelming yes: 90%. And interestingly, of those who said no, many of them said they supported the junior doctors’ position completely, but didn’t believe in industrial action. So it is clear that senior doctors stand in solidarity with their juniors. But I’m still surprised by how strong the support is.
And we consultants in the Worcestershire NHS trust are not alone. If like me, you follow social media, you will have seen similar letters of support form consultant bodies in Bristol, the Royal Free and St Georges in London and the Royal College of Anaesthesiology. There’s plenty of support across the country.
I want junior doctors to know that their bosses aren’t going to be angry with them when they strike. I want them to know that they are going to be supported. I want them to know that we are shoulder to shoulder with them in what they are planning to do and we will help keep our patients safe.
We are joined by the nursing staff. The nurses I have spoken to and work with want to lend their support and have similar concerns.
This solidarity exists because everyone in healthcare is anxious about how junior doctors are feeling. There are a large number who are deciding whether or not they want to continue to work as a doctor in this country. Many have traditionally worked overseas for a year or 18 months, and return having seen a different healthcare system, which often enriches their career. But now a lot of them are starting to talk about not coming back.
This a huge concern. We are struggling across the NHS with staffing. We have a higher proportion of expensive locum doctors and if we lose any NHS doctors it will make this far worse. I don’t think the government, particularly the health secretary, gets it: these actions may well cost the health service more money in the long term.
And to anybody who doesn’t understand healthcare, including some politicians, I have a message: we doctors and nurses already work at night and weekends, 24/7. As we become older and more experienced as consultants, we don’t work as often at night or weekends, but junior doctors work those out-of-hours sessions much more frequently. The term “junior” doesn’t give you the real picture. These are often people in their 30s or with families to look after who, like others, are trying to balance life with a tough job.
Jeremy Hunt’s attitude of “if you don’t agree with my position, I’ll do it anyway” is appalling. And there is a fear among other staff that we’re going to have the same thing happen to us.
We all agree that a seven-day NHS is a good thing, but at the moment we’re struggling to meet the requirements of a five-day service. There’s no promise of more money.
All that bringing these services in on Saturdays and Sundays is going to mean is that the doctors working those days are going to have days off during the week. It’s the same with other healthcare staff– radiographers, physiotherapists, and so on. A true seven-day NHS is a great idea but it needs huge investment.
I don’t think the government has told us what it really means by a seven-day NHS yet. This is just one example of the huge uncertainty about the future of the national health service.
Junior doctors are the frontline of the NHS. When people are really sick, they are the people who see a patient first, and I think the public, particularly anyone who has been treated by them, want junior doctors to be given respect. Even those who aren’t experts in health or care.
We are all committed to maintaining patient safety. At our trust we will decide exactly what is safe in terms of a service we can provide while the strike takes place. We remain committed to providing full emergency cover and also emergency surgery, urgent surgery and cancer surgery. We would aim to provide all that. And it looks like the action will be brief. I don’t see any real problems with patient safety.
No, the real danger to patients is not the strike, it is that workers’ voices and concerns are going unheeded by those in government. And if people want an NHS where patients are safe in the future, with well trained, well rested doctors to look after them, then we must all support our junior doctors in their strike.
- Interview by Anna Isaac
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