British junior doctors not giving up

This video says about itself:

Junior Doctor Slams Sexism In Controversial New Contract | Good Morning Britain

27 April 2016

Dr Salwa Malik attacks what she describes as ‘discrimination against women’ while reading directly from the controversial new junior doctors‘ contract.

JEREMY HUNT stubbornly refused to agree to talks yesterday to avert more strike action by junior doctors over the imposition of damaging contracts. The junior doctors will strike for five days from 8am on Monday September 12 with more strikes expected later. But the Health Secretary ignored yet another offer from doctors’ union the British Medical Association (BMA) to cancel the strikes if he withdraws imposition of the contracts to allow further talks: here.

THE decision by the British Medical Association to authorise fresh strike action by junior doctors over the imposition of a new work contract is a decisive blow against the Tory government: here.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Full support for junior docs

Friday 2nd September 2015

THE junior doctors’ strike set for September 12-16 is symptomatic of a health service in profound crisis.

The strike itself is against Jeremy Hunt’s refusal to continue discussions on two key issues: the shortage of doctors in key specialisms and the impact of the new, longer contract hours on women.

Under the imposed settlement, standard working hours have been extended by two hours to 9pm and now include Saturdays.

Compensation is to be paid in terms of increased pay levels and higher overtime rates. But Hunt’s imposed settlement fails to take into account two inter-related issues.

There is a serious shortage of doctors in a number of key specialisms and the majority of doctors under 30 are now women.

Medical students will have spent five years in university training. They will face up to 10 years as junior doctors on starting pay that remains £10,000 lower than the average for trainee lawyers, accountants and bankers. And many doctors, women and men, will want to start families.

This is where Hunt’s demand for extended working hours will impose significant problems, not least in terms of childcare costs, and will do so unevenly across specialisms.

It’s why so many junior doctors feel the settlement to be unfair and contrast Hunt’s dictatorial approach with the maintenance of existing contracts in Scotland and Wales.

Junior doctors are also more aware than anyone that the NHS itself is in acute crisis and this is likely to make the imposed settlement even more unworkable.

Since 2011 the number of patients waiting longer than four hours in accident and emergency, where many junior doctors work, has increased from 52,000 to 181,000.

The King’s Fund speaks of the health service as “buckling under the strain of huge financial and operational pressures” and warns that “cuts in staffing and reductions in quality of care are inevitable if the government’s priority is to restore financial balance.”

Cutting this deficit, estimated by The Lancet to be over £20 billion by 2020, is indeed the government’s priority and is why across England smaller hospitals are being closed, accident and emergency services merged and some hospitals are already announcing the suspension of night services.

Government funding for public health, critical for keeping people out of hospital, faces cuts of over five per cent a year up to 2020.

At the same time new regional structures are being set up under central NHS control for rationalising provision and levering in new resources — shorthand for more private sector involvement.

This is why the strike next week must be supported.

Junior doctors are in revolt against an enforced settlement that is manifestly unfair. They are also highlighting a crisis affecting all NHS staff and those they care for.

Rationing treatment, forcing people into the private sector or buying services from the profiteers cannot be the answer. It needs a drastic change of spending priorities — most all for defence.

Just when Hunt was refusing further negotiation, the Conservative government was entering the final phase of its campaign to commit Britain to another generation of nuclear weapons at a cost of £205bn, 10 times the deficit forecast for the NHS in 2020.

In the debate Theresa May declared, three weeks before Hiroshima Day, that she would not hesitate to push the nuclear button.

The same week the former US secretary for defence under Bill Clinton, William Perry, published his Journey at the Nuclear Brink highlighting the extreme dangers of such a mentality.

He warned that today the world was closer to nuclear destruction than at any time since the 1980s.

Cancelling Trident and resolving the NHS crisis go together and is why we urgently need a new government with new priorities.

JUNIOR doctors defended stepping up their strike action yesterday against the hated seven-day contract being forced on them by NHS wrecker and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. After announcing strikes for five days from Monday, September 12, the junior doctors will also strike on October 5, 6, 7, 10 and 11, November 14 to 18 and December 5 to 9, junior doctors confirmed: here.

Saturday, 3 September 2016: SUPPORT JUNIOR DOCTORS! BRING DOWN TORIES! – demands Ealing mass picket: here.

UK doctors struggle escalates with announcement of 20 days of strikes: here.

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