Would you support the doctors' strike.

youtu.be/uK7DRJx9nbU

Jeremy Hunt.

Funny, clever but frightenly true, thanks Jen

www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/28/equality-watchdog-warns-junior-doctors-contract-potentially-illegal

The contract might be illegal because of the way it affects female doctors.
I wonder why it's taken so long for this to come out?

nhap.org/the-friday-surgery-7/

Interesting for anyone who has had tests for memory.
It seems like everyone can remember Cameron, or the one with the tax problem, so it skews the results.
So there's a Hunt effect and a Cameron effect to go with the weekend effect when the weekend lasts for four days.

I know the figures probably wont even be published, but apparently FEWER patient deaths occurred during the strike than usual, due to consultants making the critical decisions, not junior doctors.

That’s interesting Lillie. Did your source say whether that was numerically fewer deaths or proportionally fewer? Knowing that is important for understanding the actual significance of the lower number.

People were advised to avoid hospitals during the strike so there may well have been fewer patients, in which case one would expect the number of deaths to be smaller too. However, if the proportion of deaths to hospital visits/stays was smaller than usual, then it very likely was because more experienced doctors were treating patients.

www.pulsetoday.co.uk/hot-topics/junior-doctor-contract/jeremy-hunt-thanks-gps-for-ensuring-patient-safety-during-junior-doctor-strikes/20031731.article

Because people were going to GPs instead - you know, like we used to.

Just turning up at the surgery, with a broken ankle or whatever?

You didn't read the link, then, Ana?
What a surprise.
It's just a way of Hunt trying his divide and rule tactics. GPs were told not to book appointments on the days of the strike so that all the appointments would be available for people to ring up on the day, just like we used to be able to do.

I did read the link, actually.

Elsewhere, NHS England regional teams had urged practices not to pre-book appointments on the days of the strike to ensure there was capacity for extra patients.

So they weren't 'told'. I doubt many people who genuinely needed to be seen at an A&E Department would just make an appointment to see their GP.

I'm just glad everything appears to have gone smoothly - this time.

The crux of the matter is that (just as is happening with the teachers) government ministers do not listen to the professionals, but simply ride roughshod over them, determined to push through their ideas, even though they are being told very clearly that they are not practical on the ground. They persist in treating honest, dedicated and well-educated professionals like children.

It can only end badly. Young doctors will take themselves off elsewhere and then what happens to the 7 day a week service if there is no-one to man it? And the nuttiest bit is that a 7 day a week service has been there all the time - certainly since my OH qualified in about 1973.

www.pulsetoday.co.uk/hot-topics/junior-doctor-contract/gp-practices-told-not-to-book-patient-appointments-for-junior-doctor-strike-days/20031625.article

Your quote was a link as well, Ana.
Did you read that? "told".

www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/23/junior-doctors-strike-will-not-put-patients-at-risk-senior-medics-say

More on the junior doctors' side than Hunt's and Stevens'.

They appear to have forgotten that a lot of GP trainees were on strike as well, being junior doctors and members of the BMA.

It didn't say 'told' in your first link dj - which is where I got my quote from.

How about stopping being petty, Ana, and try to think about the issue instead.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/128806

A petition for a referendum on the handling of the NHS dispute.
Just started today by the look of it.

Sorry, started 29th April.

No I wouldn't support them. Even though I have a young niece just qualified as a doctor! The Labour Party years ago increased doctor's pay and cut their hours. One doctor replying on this site said that they do not know they are born! I agree with her.

Royandsyl I agree with you ! I have a niece and her husband, both now consultants, who have expressed their frustration and anger at the bullyboy tactics being employed to get the junior doctors on the picket lines. They have told me that in their hospitals many doctors have had their lives made difficult when refusing to strike.

Okay, we'll just sell off the NHS to Tory party donors, shall we?
Some of us on here will just die off, because we will not be able to afford health insurance or medication, or to see a doctor - just like my grandfather did before the NHS.
Will that satisfy your consultant family?

By the way, the consultants are next in line to have their contracts changed. That's why most of them support the junior doctors in their fight.

"What is the point of doctors working a "normal" Saturday if we cannot do all the "normal" things we do during the week because the rest of the hospital staff aren't at work?

I have yet to see a comprehensive and convincing plan on how to structure and fund these extra "seven-day NHS" staff and services."

That is an extract from an interesting article in the Telegraph :

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/27/junior-doctors-cant-create-jeremy-hunts-seven-day-nhs-on-our-own/

It's worth being read in full.

FarNorth,
I would imagine a change of contract is on the agenda for ALL NHS staff. If not, 24/7 'normal' working would involve a HUGE increase in staffing costs to maintain the same service over the weekend.

Why shouldn't there be changes in the contracts of NHS employees? I'm not saying that I want such changes, or even that I think they are necessary. I'm just saying that in principle, I don't see what is wrong with contract changes where managers of a business think it necessary to maintain or improve the service they run.

I presume such things happen in other businesses and industries.