‘OTHER trade unions should take action to support us and defend the NHS and I really hope we are all going to come together over this,’ junior doctor and BMA member Nadia Masood said yesterday.
She was speaking to News Line on the eve of today’s third strike where junior doctors in every hospital in the country walk out from 8.00am. This is an escalation, as this time they are out for 48 hours until 8.00am Friday morning.
There are two more strikes called after today’s action:
• 48-hour strike on Wednesday 6th April.
• 48-hour strike on Tuesday 26 April.
Nadia Masood continued: ‘Our goal has always been a safe contract for the NHS and that hasn’t changed, but government has refused to listen. We’ve tried everything, petitions, doctors’ letters, everything, we know this new contract is going to make things worse, I can’t believe they are actually going ahead with it.
‘They have to stop this now, we can never accept it because it would be the end of the NHS. There needs to be a definite show of support and the imposition of this contract needs to be defeated, they are just steamrollering ahead and they must be stopped.’
A ‘24/7 vigil’ has been called from 8:30pm today where hundreds of junior doctors will descend on Downing Street. And on Thursday 10 March there is a demonstration by doctors from all the major East End hospitals which will gather at 5.00pm outside The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel and make its way to a rally at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Medical student Joe Harris told News Line: ‘They are also fighting for our generation not just themselves. It is important to remember that you can be a junior doctor for 10 or 12 years so that if you have just graduated it is something which very much affects you.
‘The contract imposition has really galvanised more support, and the government were banking on doctors just giving up and rolling over but they have become even more frustrated and more determined and it does not seem like the end of this dispute is in sight.
‘Junior doctors have definitely stood their ground. I think that the other unions should come out on strike. This is going to affect the NHS in every aspect of clinical care and there is no profession which will be immune to the effects of such a drastic change.
‘There comes a point where action is not just needed by individuals but by the organisations that represent them.
‘They can’t be left to fight alone. This country may well be moving towards a general strike, with not only the NHS being dismantled but local government, eduction, and all aspects of the public sector coming out because of the unpopular changes being made.
‘The problem is not just with health secretary Hunt. It is not a battle with an individual, this is a battle against an ideology – it is embedded within the Tory Party. So even when this battle is won, the fight certainly is not over until the Tories are gone.’
Dave Wiltshire secretary of the All Trade Union Alliance said: ‘The NHS is something that every worker in the country relies on from the day they are born until the day they die.
‘The entire strength of the trade union movement must be mobilised to defend the junior doctors and to defend the NHS. The TUC must turn the junior doctors strike into a general strike by bringing all their members out to bring the Tories down.’
