Resident doctors and their supporters were on the picket line at St Thomas’ hospital on the first day of their five days of strike action in support of their pay claim.
Pay is still 20% below 2008 level in real terms, and the Starmer government and Health Secretary Wes Streeting still refuse to discuss pay.
The doctors chanted: ‘What do we want? Fair pay! When do we want it? Now! How do we get it? Strike! And ‘Whose NHS? Our NHS!’
Dr Keith, BMA member and a surgical trainee, told News Line: ‘I would much rather not to have to be here. We want to get on with our work.
‘We had a lot of hope last year when the government just came in and we got a pay award. But promises made by the government last year weren’t kept, not just on pay, but other things too.
‘For example doctors are supposed to report when they do overtime, because of safety concerns, but when they do, many of them are punished.
‘There’s even a lot of unemployment amongst doctors, and there are 20 applicants for each specialist position. The Secretary of State should go to the Treasury and get the necessary funds, not just for doctors’ pay, but to fund the NHS properly.’
Dr Andrew Meyerson, said: ‘Its shocking that we had to strike again. It’s shocking that we are losing 20,000 doctors every year to the private sector or abroad.
‘It’s also shocking that austerity is still happening in the public sector. And we have a Health Secretary who won’t support us. We just want to get back to work.’
Speaking to News Line, Lois Davis, a retired film maker, said: ‘I have come, to support the doctors’ strike today. We need to pay our doctors, because we would lose them to other countries that would pay them more money.
‘I also know, that this government wastes billions of pounds, to the public private partnership scheme.
‘This leaks money from the NHS, into the profiteering private companies. I want my taxes, to pay for the doctors not the public private partnership scheme.’
