Thoughts from the Picket Line
I arrived at the picket line at Royal Lancaster
Infirmary at 8am on Wednesday just as the photographer was arriving to take
some pictures for his latest story. There is still significant media interest
in the strikes - which are the first set of doctors strikes in 40 years.
The junior doctors had arrived and were
getting their banners ready and it was fantastic to see some local teachers
turn up to support our doctors. The rain didn’t dent our spirits and we spoke
to many passers by who supported us and hundreds of cars honked their horns in
support as they drive by.
As a GP I support our junior colleagues
100% in this fight for a safe and fair contract and what is in effect a fight
for the NHS. I know they don’t want to be on strike but they have been forced
into this by Cameron and Hunt who now see doctors as their enemy and are trying
to crush them.
A consultant came out to the picket line and
brought coffee for us and I had a chat with him. He said the consultants were
showing huge support for the junior doctors and would continue to do so during
the next escalation to a full walk out in late April.
In most democracies if a Health Secretary
had handled the situation so badly that junior doctors had gone on strike he
would have ben sacked. But not in this country. We have a government prepared
to bully doctors and force through and implement a contract that is manifestly
unsafe, unfair and what we have recently seen is actually discriminatory – to
women on the whole.
Junior doctors have been left with no
choice as Cameron and Hunt refuse to talk. The doctors are livid at how they
have been publicly vilified by politicians prepared to lie about statistics in
order to justify their misplaced ideology.
It made me think once more how GPs have it
bad at the moment too. With a crushing workload, no time to think or take stock
of the 50-60 patients we see at 10 minute intervals each day, the GP profession
is on its knees and many are walking away because they can’t continue. 12-14
hour non stop days are the norm and it is killing my specialty. I am so angry
at what is being done to what was once the jewel in the crown of the NHS. Many
GPs say they no longer feel safe in their day to day work given all the
government has piled on us.
In a way I would like GPs to be on strike
side by side with our junior colleagues to show the dreadful state the NHS is
in due to the neglect of this government. Year on year real cuts to the NHS
budget has left the service close to collapse. When the NHS needs 4% increases
each year to keep up with the care needed it has been getting 0.9% for the past
6 years.
When the junior doctors change jobs in
August (as they do each year) there will be huge gaps in rotas as doctors will
have gone abroad or just left medicine. Their morale is so low they do not want
to work under this imposed contract. I
think some hospitals will seriously struggle to fill rotas leaving doctors to
care for ever increasing numbers of patients overnight and making it less and
less safe.
The government should be ashamed of itself
having brought the service to its knees but they continue to ply us with their
lies about the NHS doing well and care improving – when every NHS staff member
knows the exact opposite is true.
It is a national scandal. It should see a
government fall. It should see millions of us on the streets.
The only way to stop what is happening is
to get angry and get active. Join campaigning groups, get family & friends
to write to their MPs, write to the local press, oh and above all support your
junior doctors and tell them you stand shoulder to shoulder with them.
Comments
Post a Comment