Breaking the NHS picket line

There was a minority group of junior doctors at our local hospital that were quite aggressive & confrontational towards staff & patients.

The trust did challenge the behaviour as intimidating the public is not tolerated.

Continue to use the main entrance & if they do cause a nuisance then report to the trust & if you are a patient & feel harassed then report to police.

The majority want a peaceful protest & don't support the tiny minority who are behaving badly

Bigger than my town of 20k plus people, by the sound of it.

I think average walking speed is approx 3mph. I live right one on side and before I was old and decrepit I could walk the 2.2 miles to the far side of town in 40 minutes.

If it takes an hour, I'd say that the hospital site must be at least 3-3.5 miles across the shortest distance between two entrances.

It sounds like bollocks to me.

I visited a friend in hospital during one of the strikes, and the pickets didn't say a word as people crossed the picket line.

It takes an hour to walk from one entrance to a hospital to another entrance? how big is this hospital?

The picket line with consist of about 10 middle class late 20 year olds, looking rather awkward.
If it’s get too cold or wet they will likely go home. There may be some light chanting or a few placards.

There is absolutely no animosity towards staff going to work or patients. I remember from the last one, they were quite useful in giving patients directions.

I can only assume your manager is an idiot, or this is a bizarre post designed to reduce support for the strikes.

I work at a big hospital. Never heard of this before. Just go to work as normal.

Non issue.

Go to work as normal, ignore them in the highly unlikely event they shout or whatever.

Your manager is talking nonsense. Consultant here who tooted my car horn to support the strikers last time, covered my share of their shifts and gave them homemade cake to fuel them during the cold.

The picket numbers are controlled as is the distance they can stand from the hospital entrance. None of ours even raised a voice at other resident doctors who were walking in to hospital. Maybe they are a single parent, maybe they need to be working in a qualifying week for maternity benefits, maybe they couldn’t afford to lose pay 🤷‍♀️ It was all very civilised, no doctor would wish to see themselves facing disciplinary action for such unruly conduct and no one would risk their registration for activities on a picket line.

Your manager is talking utter rot op.

How big is this hospital that it would take an hour to reach another entrance? At average walking speed you would cover 3-4 miles in that time.

But it all sounds like nonsense anyway. There was a demonstration outside the hospital when I went for my mammogram. It was away from the entrance and didn’t interfere at all. My mum has had cancer treatment throughout the dr strikes without issue.

Goady much ? Calling this post out as a load of old shit. Get a life

I was due to give birth during an NHS strike (can't remember the details) and there was quite a crowd and banners and loud hailers etc outside the hospital - it got me quite anxious prior.

Turns out that they were well away from the entrance and we just hooted our horn as we turned in and they all cheered and that was that.

You are not a doctor so you are not breaking a picket.

No doctor striking is asking their colleagues to stay off work.

No doctor would attempt to intimidate or harass other staff or patients and expect to keep their job.

It's not the miners shouting at scabs.....

Right, now I'm calling you out here OP for downright talking rubbish..
I work as a midwife and have seen the picket lines with the junior doctors at my own hospital.
They could not give a monkeys if you go to work, you are non clinical. You working affects their strike not one jot.

As for getting angry at patients you sound absolutely ridiculous. As a PP said this isn't the 1980's.
Get a grip and get to your work.

There was a strike at my previous employer, a few of us decided to keep on working and there was absolutely no problem at all. Just said hi and had a bit of a chat when we went in.

It's not the 1970s you can decide what's best for you and your family. If anyone is unpleasant I'd report them for bullying. A strike or a picket doesn't give you a free rein to abuse colleagues.

Your manager is talking shit!! Just go about your business.

I don’t believe that for a moment.

Are you very young OP? Or just very naive 🤦‍♀️

The picket line at my hospital has been pretty non existent during the last few strikes . As nurses we barely noticed it was happening as numbers were low.

Last junior drs strike I walked in past them with my child for their regular appointment. The dr we often see there waved and smiled! I wouldn’t worry

Ok so I've been on loads of university picket lines and nothing like that has ever happened! We used to cheerily, jokily say to the students "skive off classes! support your striking lecturers!" but we were very much reminded of the law that picket lines could not be intimidating. Throwing something at a bus would absolutely have been against the (quite strict!) picketing laws.

Just give a cheery wave, say "I'm supportive of what you're doing," and bring some biscuits if you really feel like showing support. If you're not in the doctors union, you wouldn't be allowed to strike anyway!

Your manager is being daft and I can't imagine the junior doctors will be at all abusive they will understand that you are going in to do your job and if you're an administrator then you'll have sorted all their clinics out for them!

This seems to me like someone trying to stir up animosity towards striking Doctors.
Of course you aren’t breaking a picket line if you’re not clinical. If this is for real then both you and your manager need to educate yourselves on what a strike is.
Absolutely ridiculous.

Are you a doctor? If not, your post makes zero sense.

Anyway, some of our doctors strike and some don’t. No public animosity or physical violence ever seen.

But it’s not your strike- it’s 100% expected that you work as normal.

It's completely different. The doctors still support what the hospital does. They don't get angry at patients or colleagues.

If your manager has put this in writing to to hr. They are deliberately trying to scare you and that is completely unacceptable.

Did they really say that the doctors get angry at patients? That's a disgusting accusation to make