Junior Doctors strike

Grantanow I also watch that series and find it pretty amazing. I have mixed feelings about the change in pensions but we do need consultants to stay working as we are facing a huge shortage of consultants, particularly in certain specialisms. Anaesthetics, children, psychiatry, and heart and lung treatment have the most shortages currently with Cardiology being top of that list. There is a link between the number of doctors in training and number of consultants. Basically we can't increase the number of doctors in training if there is a drop in the number of consultants and it's not possible to increase the number of consultants because new consultants must have successfully completed every level of their lengthy training. It's a "chicken and egg" situation. Junior doctors learn increasingly complex procedures from watching more senior doctors, if the consultants aren't there, who do they learn from?

Good point foxie48. I dont know about Cardiology, but I do know locally that in Mental Health some new consultant Psychiatrists are only on temp 9 month contracts.

Yes, consultant, not junior docs.

And its all about the funding, because we would love to keep some of the keen young consultants who are after all now looking for permanent berths. All so counter productive, all so chaotic, especially in MH where getting to know complex conditions take time with patients, you can't just do tests and hand on to someone else.

Four more days of strikes have been announced. They are book-ended by Easter and another weekend so in practice that’ll be ten days with either skeleton or no staffing.

School Easter holidays? The striking doctors won't have to worry about child care.

And your point is?

Lizbethann55

School Easter holidays? The striking doctors won't have to worry about child care.

Well that will make a change, organising childcare around long days (07.00a.m to 07.00p.m), nights, weekends and bank holidays is very difficult and incredibly expensive as it doesn't fit around the usual provision.

I was surprised to hear about the child care arrangements one professional couple put in place for their first and only child. It involved paying for two young au pairs to jobshare. It worked for this family.

The more affluent employ a full time nanny. And some childminders do a very good caring job.

I have much enjoyed trying to help out with my two youngest grandchildren today but have realised my limitations! In any event, yes childcare is expensive and problematic but this is not a problem confined to medics.

No-one has suggested that it's a "problem confined to medics" but childcare is a problem for anyone doing shift work that does not have a regular pattern, particularly if it includes nights, it's very difficult to sleep during the day with young children in the house. Not many people have the extra bedrooms required to house 2 au pairs or the money to pay a nanny but wonderful for those who do!

Yes, foxie48, it's a no-brainer we need consultants to keep working for the reasons you set out. I noticed today that the Chairman of NHS England said doctors were over-skilled and perhaps we need more 'assistants'. I can't accept doctors are 'over-skilled' - otherwise some operations would become impossible to perform.

foxie48 two au pairs cheaper than two small children in a nursery. Living away from the south east, larger more affordable housing is available. At least medics are in great demand all over the UK so have choices.

Bottom line is that I think it’s wrong for doctors to demand a 35 per cent pay rise.

Well Ronib I agree with you, I think a negotiating point which starts at 35% is to high and I don't think for one minute that they believe they will get that much. I'm also not happy with a four day strike but the BMA has become very militant of late. Perhaps that's because so many doctors are very unhappy with their pay and conditions. We tend to reap what we sow. However, surely this has nothing to do with the costs of childcare other than I was responding to Lizbethann55 comment regarding the strike falling during the Easter holidays. I could also have said that many junior doctors won't have an Easter holiday because they will be working. In the last 6 years my daughter has been able to have Christmas day off three times, once she had come off nights on Christmas morning and once she was starting work on Boxing day morning. Holidays are just normal working days (and nights).

Bottom line is that I think it’s wrong for doctors to demand a 35 per cent pay rise.

The rationale behind this is that junior doctors have lost 26% of pay in real terms over the past decade. Then there is 10% inflation to deal with, so they are actually asking for a less than inflation rise for this year.

As foxie48 says, this is a starting point for negotiations, I don't for one moment think that they will get this. But, as in all bargaining, you start high (or low, depending on where you're coming from) and expect to meet round about the middle.

As for the childcare/au pair diversion, I always get rather irritated by people who think they can tell others how they should run their lives.

MaizieD just trying to offer pointers to young parents earning the same salary as a barista! How on earth can childcare be remotely affordable?