AS THE junior doctors ended their latest four-day strike at 7.00am yesterday morning, Tory Health Minister Will Quince kicked out at them and NHS consultants, touring the TV and radio studios to say ‘there will be no more talks about pay.’
Quince said: ‘My door remains open to discuss other issues around working environments and conditions, but pay is closed and I think that’s the right decision.’
He went on: ‘It’s hugely disappointing that both the junior doctors of the BMA and the consultants are still taking industrial action.’
However, striking junior doctors leaders insisted on their picket lines on Monday that they are fighting for full restoration of their pay, which has been cut by over 30% in the past decade.
They are now reballoting to get a fresh mandate for further strike action as required under the Tory anti-union laws.
Meanwhile NHS consultants, who have suffered an even bigger wage cut over the past decade than their junior doctor colleagues, are holding another 48-hour strike on 24-25 August.
- The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) yesterday poured scorn on Tory PM Sunak’s announcement of 900 new hospital beds by January.
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Pat Cullen, said: ‘The elephant in the room is who will staff these additional beds? Nursing staff are already spread too thinly over too many patients.
‘Every day nursing staff are under unsustainable pressure, with over 40,000 vacant nursing posts in England.
‘It is leaving our patients receiving lower quality care, often in inappropriate settings, and our colleagues burnt out and heading towards the door.
‘If the Prime Minister is serious about cutting waiting times, he should not ignore the nursing staff walking out of the profession.
‘He will continue to fail to meet his pledge to cut NHS waiting times if nursing is not seen as an attractive, well-paid profession to join or stay in.’
- The Royal College of Midwives warned yesterday that vital perinatal mental health support is ‘on the precipice’.
The RCM released a new report yesterday entitled ‘Strengthening perinatal mental health’.
It makes for sobering reading. One in five women will experience mental health issues during pregnancy and up to a year after birth, ranging from anxiety and depression to more significant illness.
Furthermore, suicide remains one of the leading causes of death in new mothers up to the first year after giving birth.
The RCM’s Executive Director, Midwife, Birte Harlev-Lam OBE, said: ‘Quite simply midwives need time to care and there needs to be more midwives to share the workload.
‘We are not asking for the moon; we estimate that fewer than 350 additional specialist perinatal mental health midwives could bring about the results that we all want to see – and that women deserve.
‘Mental ill-health ranks with physical factors as one of the leading causes of maternal deaths in the UK, and yet this is not reflected in the resources allocated to it, whether in terms of staffing or other support.’
