‘IF THEY ban the doctors strikes the British Medical Association must call on the other unions to come out with them. If doctors strikes are banned the TUC must call a general strike,’ retired surgeon and BMA member Anna Athow said yesterday.
She was speaking after Tory Party leader Kemi Badenoch had demanded of Labour PM Starmer: ‘Ban Doctors strikes!’ in the House of Commons yesterday lunchtime.
Starmer responded: ‘The strikes are dangerous and utterly irresponsible. My message to resident doctors is, don’t abandon patients, work with us to improve conditions and rebuild the NHS.’
LibDem leader Ed Davey also chimed in, condemning the ‘irresponsible strike by resident doctors’.
Resident Doctors formed picket lines outside hospitals in towns and cities across England yesterday, the first day in their five-day strike, which is due to conclude at 7.am next Monday.
In London there was a lively picket outside St Thomas’ hospital opposite Parliament on Westminster Bridge, with pickets and supporters chanting: ‘Patients need doctors, Doctors need pay’, and ‘What do we want? Pay restoration! When do we want it? Now! How do we get it? Strike!’
Dr Jack Fletcher, Chairman of the Residents Doctors Committee, told News Line: ‘There are two crucial issues. One is jobs for doctors. We are seeing tens of thousands of doctors being turned away from jobs in our NHS.
‘This comes at a time when “corridor care” is standard, patients can’t see a GP and waiting lists are stubbornly high.
‘Compounding this, is that doctors are haemorrhaging out of our country, all because they are underpaid and not valued, whilst the Health Secretary continues to push real-terms pay cuts.’
Nisha Moore, a second year GP trainee, said: ‘One more year and I will be looking down the barrel of the gun of unemployment. Patients find it impossible to see their GP the same day, yet there are now thousands of GPs unemployed.’
Laura Harmer said: ‘Our pay has been eroded over many years. Physician Assistants get paid more than us, even though the responsibility is on the doctor. The government says they are creating more training places. These are temporary and anyway there’s not enough of them.’
Rohan Krishnan said: ‘It’s disappointing to see the government not reading the room, and seeing the strong feeling among doctors. Their “offer” of 4,000 training places consists of repurposing existing roles. People are already doing these jobs. It’s an attempt to divide and rule, setting doctors against each other. And calling us “moaning minnies”, that is directly quoting Thatcher.
‘We expect better from a Labour government. They thought they could buy us off with the 28.9% pay deal just after they got elected, but that’s over three years, barely matching inflation, with a sub-inflation offer for next year.’
Sarah Zbeidy said: ‘30,000 people voted to continue the strike. It’s frustrating that we have to resort to this. We could be facing unemployment in a year’s time. People can’t get a GP appointment, and have to wait 5-6 hours in A&E, and they are not providing enough jobs for doctors.
‘We believe there should be enough doctors for all the patients who need them, they should pay us properly, and do a multi-year deal.
‘We just want a pay rise that takes us from £18 to £22 per hour. Now a lot of what they say is fear-mongering. I think all the unions and all the people should take action. We have a social duty to save the NHS.’
Juliet Thornton, North Thames Regional Doctors Committee, said: ‘We are on strike for two reasons, jobs and pay. On the jobs front, there have been 40,000 applicants for 10,000 jobs.
‘Last year 52% of second year doctors found themselves unemployed. Part of the BMA’s position is UK graduates prioritisation and those who have worked in the NHS for a significant amount of time.’
Minoza Osmani said: ‘I have come out on strike because after two years of my foundation training I could be unemployed because there are not enough training posts.’
Anna Stotten, medical trainee, said: ‘There’s a lot of anger, which is down to lack of training places. The training places are not creating jobs. Planning is poor due to lack of funding and you’re stuck on a junior grade with no progression.’
• See editorial page 6