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Re: Britain on STRIKE: £14ph Junior Doctors' Strike-NHS Braces -Most Disruptive Walko
£14 PER HOUR Junior Doctors' Strike: NHS Braces For Most Disruptive Walkout Yet
A four-day junior doctors' strike across England is expected to be the most disruptive in the NHS's history.
GPs; Routine services scrapped to cope with junior doctors’ strike
BBC 11 APR 2023
British Medical Association (BMA) members in planned and emergency care will walk out at 07:00 BST on Tuesday.
More than a quarter of million of appointments and operations could be cancelled, and some hospitals say up to half of planned treatment is affected.
The union said there were plans to pull doctors off picket lines if lives were in immediate danger.
Under trade union laws, life-and-limb cover must be provided.
The junior doctors' approach contrasts with recent strikes by nurses and ambulance workers, which saw unions agree to exempt certain emergency services.
But doctors say they are striking for patient safety as much as about pay, saying that current pay levels are affecting recruitment and leading to many doctors leaving the profession.
Prof Sir Stephen Powis, the NHS's national medical director, said it would be "the most disruptive industrial action in NHS history".
He said health leaders were concerned about the potential impact on patients and services, and cancer patients were among those whose treatment will be delayed.
Mental health services and some GP surgeries are also expected to be impacted, while the NHS said it will prioritise keeping critical care, maternity, neonatal care, and trauma operations running.
Between 250,000 and 350,000 appointments and operations could be cancelled, according to estimates from senior NHS figures.
The timing of the strike is as important as its scale - it immediately follows the bank holiday Easter weekend, a period when the NHS already faces increased demand and greater staff absence.
The Patients Left in Limbo
Dr Paul Turnbull had his operation cancelled during the first doctors' strike
Dr Paul Turnbull, 61, from Hampshire, who is an occupational health doctor, needs a prosthetic femur bone implanted in his leg.
His operation has been cancelled twice - once in December, because he developed deep vein thrombosis, and the second time because of the first junior doctors' strike. The operation is now due to take place on 18 April, after the four-day strike.
He has limited mobility and is unable to work.
"As a doctor, I don't believe doctors should strike. I think our first responsibility is to our patients and I think using patients as pawns in a dispute with the government is not something we should be doing."
Neuroscientist Dr Camilla Hill, 42, from Nottingham, has also been affected. She has had two knee operations cancelled because of the junior doctors' strikes - one this week and one back in March. She now has a third date scheduled for 25 April.
She has been unable to do some of her favourite hobbies, which include hiking and sailing, in part because of the pain in her knees.
"I feel really frustrated. It's messed me about, it's messed about my employer, it's messed about my husband - and it's messed about his employer as well. It's not just the patient whose operation is cancelled that's impacted, it's everybody around them."
line
Junior doctors are demanding a 35% increase in pay, to compensate for 15 years of below-inflation wage increases.
But the government has said the pay demand is unrealistic, pointing to the deal other health unions have recommended to their members - which includes a 5% pay rise and one-off payment of at least £1,655.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents service providers, said it was "depressing that there seems to be no movement at all from the two sides of this dispute" and called for the conciliation service Acas to oversee talks.
He told the BBC the strike's impact will be "enormous", adding: "Those services are stretched and there's no question there will be a risk to patient safety, there will be a risk to patient dignity because we're unable to provide the kind of care we want."
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