Another doctor explains.
My (non-medical) family were discussing the strikes today. It made me think. I thought I'd share this with you all:
It's hard to get across in the ins & outs over the media regarding the junior doctor contract, strikes and the NHS as a whole. What you need to know over the last 10 years our pay hasn't increased (therefore decreased vs inflation), and we never grumbled; they took away our free hospital accommodation, we just accepted it (despite it basically resulting in a 30-40% paycut); they made our pension crap, we just stood and took it eventually. So through all these pay and conditions problems we've not caused a fuss. We've always worked weekends and nights and we always will. We aren't grumbling about that either. Because as a collective we are quite apolitical; we have just got on with things. We care about our patients. So this gives you an idea that this contract issue and the strikes aren't motivated by money/greed/laziness.
Over the last 5 years, 50,000 of us who are on the front line day in and day out have become worried. Many colleagues including myself have noticed gaps in rotas i.e there isn't a doctor employed. It has now become the norm to cover this. My first ever job I had three doctors down, I routinely stayed late to ensure everyone was safe before we got home. This has become a norm, it is increasingly unsafe... And we started to get worried, we tried to improve things, but we still didn't strike. We notice that more people are coming to hospital after the cuts to social care and community care (stuff at home and with GP) so that more patients come to hospital, and they tend to be sicker. Furthermore, when they're better we can't get them home because we are waiting for social services. So then there aren't any beds for the sick ones. It's a constant pressure. There aren't enough staff and there isn't enough funding. But we pay less for our healthcare than any western country. Why? Approx 5 years ago we were rated the best health care system in the world for quality, efficiency, value. But now the funding has been cut (which they try to disguise) and this is now not the case. And we still haven't striked.
But then the government come spurting things about how we don't work weekends, that patients are dying because of us ("weekend effect") and that we need to have a '7 day elective service'. That roughly translates as they want you to be able to have a bunion operation on a Sunday night. But no more money and no more staff. It's unsafe now, it will become even more so. If you stretch 5 days worth of people over 7 days it's a no brainier there's not enough people. We need to fix what we've got. So now we are worried, now we are livid, and we need to stop it. They are going to sell us as the reason the NHS is going to fail. We are worried for us all.
I really don't want to strike. I can't afford it, I am concerned for patient safety but I think this is the only thing we can do to prevent the inevitable future harm. 16,000 clinics and operations are likely to be cancelled, but 76,000 operations this year were cancelled purely due to underfunding this year. It's THAT we need to stop.
And you know what... I have been told I am a selfish, greedy, disillusioned child. No I am not. I wish that some people could just see what we do and they'd understand. I know they would! Today I had an extremely hard day, I had to tell a young man he had a disease which was unlikely to be cured. I had to organise tests and make sure his symptoms and pain were controlled. And then I had to have a chat about what would happen if his heart were to stop. But I wanted to do it justice, so I did this: I spent time with him, his family and I missed lunch and I stayed late. I had a wonderfully supportive team with me today - the nurses, porters, radiographers , pharmacists, and allied healthcare workers, and great senior support which made this all possible. And I would gladly do this unpaid every day. But I will not stand for this reckless abuse the government and media hurl at us because if patients don't trust us then we can't treat them. I was in a privileged situation of trust today which enabled our team to do everything we could today to treat our patients' needs and best interests. Without that trust, I am afraid.