Would you support the doctors' strike.

I thought that figure was something they'd plucked out of midair? Didn't I read that somewhere?

artimetic? Well, well!

If that's £22 billion over five years then, according to a bit of googling for the annual cost of the NHS (in England) and a bit of artimetic calculation, that's less than 4%.
I don't know whether that's doable, but it looks as of it might be possible, especially if you're a Tory politician.

But the five year forward plan sees the NHS saving £22 billion. The MOT money will not go far to fill that gap.

www.onmedica.com/newsArticle.aspx?id=67544646-b430-4cc2-83e9-2edabdc5ac10

Equality and Human Rights Commission says that the new contract is illegal. Government says that's rubbish.
Hope it goes to court before the government gets rid of human rights.

Perhaps there is a case for not necessarily more money but better allocation of what is currently available.

Apparently senior doctors have called for midlife 'MOTs' to be scrapped after finding that the £165million-a-year scheme has to see 4762 patients to prevent only one heart attack or stroke. I guess that amount of money redeployed towards something more useful would come in handy for something else.

i2.wp.com/voxpoliticalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/160426juniordoctorstrikeexplained.jpg?w=552

Daphne, this is what you mean, I think.
Hunt's idea of 24/7 without extra staff, resources or finance is just not possible.
As whitewave said, on the cheap.

Nothing to do with taxes etc everything to do with ideology. They are hell bent on following the idea of a smaller state. Anything that is owned by the community and not for profit rather than owned by the private individual and run for profit is anathema to them.

With regard to democracy, nothing in either of their manifestos outlined what they have done to the NHS.

Well, they are doing what Tory governments always do: trying to keep taxes and spending down. If that's 'cheap', so be it, but it's what one should expect from a Tory government without being surprised or sounding resentful about it, I reckon. It's what Tories believe in and is the price we pay for democracy (such as it; not saying it's perfect). Do not make assumptions about how I vote based on this post. You'll be wrong.

Put in sufficient resources and everyone will support full weekend cover, why wouldn't they?

This government is so cheap.

"having to work at weekends for not good reason"

I thought the reason given was that weekend cover is not good enough, according to some, at the moment. I presume the Tories put the 24/7 thing in their manifesto because they thought there was a demand for it. I'm not well up on Tory manifesto pledges or Tory political thinking but I wouldn't have thought they'd promise such a thing "for no good reason". It must have seemed to them as if they had a good reason, even if you or I don't agree that it was.

Yes, they do happen, but for sound business reasons and often against strong opposition.

The issue with the NHS is that it doesn't make sense from a business point of view.

The Conservative Party promised a 24/7 NHS in its manifesto and quoted some statistics which have now been discredited to support its ambition.

I don't know exactly what proportion of the NHS budget is spent on staffing, but staffing costs are the biggest cost to the NHS, as health care is labour intensive.

In order to provide the same service on two extra days, the staffing bill has to increase - not quite by 40%, because some staff already work weekends, but by a huge amount. No extra funding is being provided for weekend staffing, so something has to give. There's no money to recruit extra staff, so staff will need to be taken off weekday rotas, which will mean that the service provided during the week will decline.

The government seems to be doing everything on the cheap. Thousands of people are going to find themselves having to work at weekends for no good reason, which will disrupt family life and increase childcare costs, etc. Without recruiting extra staff, the services provided during the week will suffer. Staff are going to end up doing unpaid overtime, which could be life-threatening.

Junior doctors are a soft target, because they are employed on short term contracts in the early years, which need to be renewed on an annual basis. Therefore, the government avoids the issue of having to change existing contracts, but it might not find it so easy to impose contract changes on other NHS staff

I'm not saying that managers thinking something is needed makes it needed either. But it might. In principle.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

Sorry, started 29th April.

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.

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

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