Would you support the doctors' strike.

So if somebody has a "vocation" that means they must sacrifice their family life and their own health in order to follow it? How exactly would that benefit the NHS in the long run?

Yes, better conditions! BUT! The reasons I went into medicine would not let me strike!
It was a vocation

Come on, Galen. Do you not want better terms and conditions for your children and grandchildren?

This is another reason to support the doctors against the government.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/nov/16/andrew-lansley-three-more-advisory-jobs-drugs-firm

Lansley is now in the House of Lords and can change laws in this country.

www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/caroline-molloy/jeremy-hunt-george-osborne-and-other-nhs-shambles-this-week

How many of you have heard about this consultation? It closes on 23rd.
NHS England, Jeremy Hunt and the Department of Health, and Healthwatch England do not seem to know what and who is involved. But it is about what will happen in the NHS over the next five years.

House officer in 1978 £800 pa. hours unlimited. Weekends starting 12.30pm on Saturdays. 2 nights off a week starting about 7pm

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-hunt-an-absolute-disgrace-for-refusing-to-face-mps-questions-on-junior-doctors-strike-a6741931.html

I think the general public will be behind the doctors in this strike. I think most of them know that it is for the NHS, not for pay, for having a doctor who is not too tired to treat them properly.

Jeremy Hunt would not even go to parliament to answer MPs questions about the doctors strike.

gillybob You say "they know the hours and conditions when they take up their position". Surely the point is that the government is proposing to change their hours and conditions and, it appears, without proper discussion/consultation?

I don't think they are exceptionally well paid, at least not until they reach more senior levels. Frankly, I think anyone who has trained, at great expense, for 5-7 years and who takes on responsibility for the lives of other people deserve to get decent pay?

To take a perspective view-there's nothing like the human cycle-I have in my possession the fees of a visiting GP for 1925-about 5/- (a fine mathematical conversion exercise?)Also a fascinating historical fact-both socially and economically.Plus la change?!

They are sticking in part because they fear that the changes will make things less safe for patients because the controls on their hours will be removed.

Unlike other strikers they are not striking for more pay - just an unreasonable change to their contracts.

Hunt is pretending this is about 24 hour cover. As we all know the NHS provides 24 hour 7 day a week cover for those who need it. They do not close A and E at weekends or send all the inpatients home and it is junior hospital doctors who are providing the care.
You cannot extend things like outpatients unless you have more doctors to work the additional hours. And there is no more money to do this.

This strike is not happening in Wales where Labour run the health service.

I don't think I do agree with this strike. The most sick and vulnerable of society will suffer. Junior doctors are exactly as their name suggests. They are junior doctors. Doctors in training. They know the hours and conditions before they take up their positions and they have to go through this tough training period before coming fully fledged and extremely well paid doctors.
My fear is that this generation of junior doctors will eventually become fully trained doctors. Are they then going to hold the country to ransom?

The junior doctors obviously feel very strongly about this to have voted to strike in such numbers. But I am suspicious of the role the BMA is playing - they are a trades union and put their members first, not the patients and have done that since they opposed the setting up of the NHS in the first place. I don't think the doctors realise what a difference this will make to the public view of their profession, much as it did to the nurses when they went out on strike in the 80's

If they do it will be the first time Doctors have gone on strike

98% in favour of strike action.
Definitely a legal strike.

NHA, thatbags.

nhap.org/the-junior-doctors-strike-is-a-referendum-on-this-governments-stewardship-of-the-nhs/

It's junior doctors, not the whole of the NHS.
The consultants will cover, and the junior doctors have agreed to come in in case of extreme emergency.
Hopefully it will show Hunt that junior doctors are important and it is not his job to upset them.

www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/aoife-abbey/junior-doctors-vote-yes-to-strike-yes-for-our-patients-yes-for-future-of-our-nhs

I find it strange that this is one union not covered by union bashing legislation. The BMA is a union, after all.

If we were attacked I have no fears that our doctors and nurses would be sitting at home

In an emergency, they would all pitch in.

What concerns me is if they strike and we have a crisis like in Paris.

My ds has regular eye injections and various related treatments and last month, when at the eye hospital, a member of staff challenged a family who were waiting.
Only the father spoke English, the mother's clothing was clearly suited to a hot climate (suggesting she had only just arrived here), there was a grandmother and a couple of children too.
The staff member produced forms and told the father that he must either complete the paperwork to show that the family weren't illegal immigrants, or pay, upfront, for the treatment h is wife wanted. This included several eye tests and injections which amounted to thousands of pounds.
The family refused to complete the forms and subsequently left the hospital.
My son gets this wonderful eye treatment on the NH every month.

It looks like junior doctors have voted in favour of strikes in December. Just saw it pop up on BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34859860

I am almost certain that emergency treatment is free for all visitors.

My ex MIL lives in Spain but comes to England as and when for major heart surgery. I do not know how she gets around registering with a GP and not having local notes unless she stays registered here when she is living in Spain?

I am certain that when my sister broke her wrist in Scotland she wasn't charged, despite being resident overseas, having qualified as a doctor and worked as far as registrar level before leaving the country. Presumably she should have received a bill (for pretty inadequate treatment) but she didn't. When she got home she had to have it re-broken and re-set. Perhaps she should have sent a bill to the Scottish hospital!

Of course there is a concerted attack on the NHS and it is coming straight from George Osborne who wishes only that the rich shall pay low taxes.
NHS budgets need to be increase to cope with general increased demand and an ageing population. Recent budget cutting and bed cutting has slipped under the radar and the pips are now starting to squeak.

Thank you eloethan. I can't understand why none of the good stuff gets reported as most people seem to think the nhs is ok

newnana It's a shame that doctors and nurses feel so under attack. I hope you can reassure your daughter that very many people appreciate what they are doing. There are often letters in our local newspaper thanking the local hospital staff for their own treatment or for the treatment of a family member. And the people I know who go to my doctors surgery are generally very complimentary about the doctors there.

I and many others feel there is a concerted campaign to discredit the NHS. It is under enormous financial and staffing pressures and mistakes are bound to be made in such a situation - or, indeed, in any large organisation dealing with such a complex range of services. Although those things that go wrong should be highlighted and investigated, it's a shame there isn't as much coverage of all the things that go right.