Doctors' Strikes

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I just wanted to gauge what people on MN think of the NHS strikes by Doctors - juniors and Consultants.

Personally, I think they should be paid much more and listened to. I am also horrified that the government has allowed over 1 million cancelled appointments across the country.

This needs to be managed. Now.

Would you consider writing to your local MP? I am now as I think sooner or later it will catch up with all of us. We will all need the NHS at some point, right?

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/sep/19/nhs-consultants-offer-to-call-off-strikes-for-12-pay-rise-in-apparent-olive-branch

My father is now dying due to lack of proper care caused by these strikes, so no I don't agree.

I agree that they should be paid better, but my patience with them has gone. What they're doing to the patients they're meant to care for is disgusting and I don't think they should be allowed to strike and jeopardise peoples' lives.

I agree with @Dumbndumber , it's against the fundamental ethics of the medical profession. There are other ways to protest and be heard without killing patients.

If they don't strike, they're quitting or moving abroad.

I know one doctor who outright quit and now has no medical licence - changed career completely, and another who moved abroad

We are in this situation because historically doctors don’t strike. Doctors’ pay has been eroded for decades and the government gets away with it because they know doctors won’t take industrial action. So those saying they should protest in other ways, what do you suggest they do instead?

My father wasn't that ill when he went in. He's now in ICU and we've been told to say goodbye.

This is directly due to a mistake made by staff here, which happened as there was no guidance from more senior doctors as they were striking.

Something that doesn't risk innocent patients ' lives would be good. It wouldn't matter to me what my conditions were like, I wouldn't risk people's lives to make a point.

I 100% support the doctors strikes.

I don't think many realise just how much safety is being compromised by the strikes. They talk about being able to provide critical care but they simply can't.

I gave birth at 36 weeks during one of the strikes earlier this year. Despite being told by a consultant that my baby needed to be out within 24 to 48 hours, I was still waiting for my waters to be broken 36 hours from being induced because of the lack of staff. I then started haemorrhaging and a CTG showed fetal distress. I opted to move to an emergency C-section. It was more than 12 hours before they could operate. They were having to call in general surgeons for cover as they didn't have enough obstetric specialists. For the whole of that time I was bleeding constantly, alone in a room with just DP, contracting regularly but with no pain relief (DH asked several times for paracetamol but they never came back), hooked up to a CTG so I couldn't move, and having not eaten or drunk for 18 hours (the surgeon said to ideally avoid all food and drink whilst waiting). For the whole time I was convinced my baby wouldn't survive and I was wondering if I would either.

Every time I hear about more strikes I feel a bit sick.

The effect on patient care just demonstrates how much this country desperately needs to retain its highly trained medical workforce. We are haemorrhaging doctors to other countries which pay more. If we don't start to rectify pay and staffing then the level of care on strike days will be the care every day before very long.

This.

I also 100% support it.

In a nurse. I do not support the consultant strike they are paid big money already.

This!!

It won't be long before those strike days with people dying will just be a regular day because there WILL be no doctors left

A strike is a taste of the future

I didnt support the nurses strike either.

I 100% support them and Steve Barclay needs to stop posturing and negotiate

Honestly I am torn over this. Yes the Drs do deserve more money but, to achieve that patients are coming to harm. I am an NHS RN and I witnessed first hand the actual harm patients had suffered as a result of the strike. Whilst patients are suffering continuously it is hard to say it is right. I bloody hate the Tories it is so emotive. I don't know when it will end.

I work for the nhs which I've done for the past 20 years. Currently having an ongoing flare of a debilitating condition. I still don't have my next consultant review date because of the strikes. I'm potentially going to lose my job because I can't get an appointment which would enable me to try different medication, which if worked I could return to my job.
I know this is not as serious as some other posters situations but I'm still very upset.
I dont know the answer.
I really feel for anyone who is being affected by this all.

If you have to go to your GPs or to a hospital, please, please, please ask who is treating you. Ensure they are not unregulated PAs who passively allow you to believe they are doctors or equivalent of. They are not! You have a right to be treated by a medically qualified doctor, please exercise this right and speak up.

To all of you who are moaning about the doctors strike, the aforementioned PAs, who are not medically qualified, are unregulated, cannot prescribe, cannot carry out surgical procedures, cannot do many things a doctor is qualified to do, yet are earning over £40,000 a year after a 2 year uni course in which there is no way they can know anywhere near as much, or do anywhere near as much, legally or medically as a junior doctor.
Why are they being paid more? How does this look to our hard working junior doctors who have far more responsibility, work far longer unsociable hours and have huge debts?
If someone came into your work, was less qualified worked less hours and immediately earned, in some cases, double your salary how would you be feeling, more than a bit disgruntled I would imagine.
Has Victoria Atkinson offered anything since the last strike, no!
Doctors are striking not only for pay reparation but for patient safety, make no mistake they don’t want to have to do this, they are being forced to do it by a government who need to get around the table with them instead of digging their heels in and refusing to do so.

I 100% support it . I have skin in the game , I'm an NHS worker myself and my DS is a junior doctor about to emigrate to Oz. His younger brother and sister out earn him already and are treated properly by their employers and I think he deserves that . Of course the strikes impact patient care , and patient care will be further eroded if there are no doctors left