Page 4 | Looks like a junior doctors strike is coming. Reasonable or unreasonable?

EgonsShell · 01/10/2022 02:11

100% reasonable.

ODPintheNHS · 01/10/2022 02:14

Crack on I say.

ive only been in the NHS for 10 years, but I’ve had two junior doctors that I’ve worked with in the years commit suicide. The conditions are terrible. The pay is terrible, yet especially overnight they can be running the whole show.

i support them 100%. And the Nurses. I’d support the paramedics too.

it’s soul destroying that some of my colleagues are having to use foodbanks because they can’t pay the nursery bill and eat, let alone heat their homes.

people are leaving the professions in droves.

paramedics going to GP surgeries, Nurses leaving altogether, junior doctors going abroad.

those of us that are left are doing our best.

Junior doctors - I wish you luck!

OldManEmu · 01/10/2022 02:18

Our DS has some serious medical conditions and spent a lot of his yearly years mostly in hospital. When we did a 2 week stint on his first Cardiac ward (small ward, so familiar faces seen more often) the junior Dr who was overseeing the whole ward seemed to literally live there the whole 2 weeks. She'd be there at 6am, still there at 11.30pm. She was amazing, so on the ball and made what was a very stressful time a lot less stressful. One morning I asked her what time she gets to work as she's always on the ward so early. That's when I found out that she slept in a 'on call' room on the ward all week. Could go home once at the weekend, then came back and did the same again for another week. I couldn't believe it! When she was asleep, she was still on call for emergencies! At the end of our stay I asked if she'd get any time off now? 'No' she said, 'I'm off to (hospital the next city along) for a different placement'.

How are they meant to be alert and save lives with that kind of schedule?!

My dad was accepted for a medical degree back in the 80s,but when he saw what it was like to be a junior Dr, he turned it down. Don't blame him, no wonder we're haemorrhaging Dr's.

Yes. Absolutely support all strike action atm, but especially this one.

Toddlerteaplease · 01/10/2022 06:20

The last one was a complete damp squib. We managed very well. If nurses go on strike. The hospital will fall apart!

musicandpassion · 01/10/2022 06:43

Completely reasonable. I'll support them when it happens as I hope they support the nursing and AHPs when we hopefully ballot to strike too!

Medstudent12 · 01/10/2022 06:47

Junior doctor here. Thank you for supporting us.

We’ve been left out of all the recent nhs pay rises (which my nursing, porter and AHP colleagues thoroughly deserved). I will also support the nurse strikes.

I pay indemnity, exam fees, parking costs, new stethoscope (£200 a pop for a decent one), I pay for my online portfolio so my boss can assess me (if I didn’t pay £500 starting my training programme I’d be sacked). I have spent thousands of my own money paying for the bare basics so I can come to work.

I want to be paid fairly. We are haemorrhaging doctors, this is a very difficult job, which to be frank most people couldn’t or wouldn’t do. Pay people fairly for the personal sacrifice or they’ll leave.

5 years ago I loved medicine, now I actively discourage people from applying and am considering quitting. Doctors will go to Aus/nz/US or like some I know will quit for pharma or finance jobs.

I am a middle grade and doctor friends with childcare struggle to pay their mortgage. Many of us currently get paid less than physician associates (who can’t prescribe or order X-rays) when we make life and death decisions.

KvotheTheBloodless · 01/10/2022 06:56

It's absolutely reasonable to strike, I fully support them. They are underpaid, massively overworked and have extremely poor working conditions. They have to pay for their own insurance and training, it costs thousands every year. So many leave for Aus or NZ now, where the pay is lots better and there's actually a work-life balance for doctors.

Zuve · 01/10/2022 06:58

Maybe they will, the NHS is in crisis. We must all value it more

holidayelbow · 01/10/2022 07:08

I am going against the grain here but I don't agree with the strike.

My friend is a junior doctor. Did her F1 and F2 full time. She has two full weeks holiday in between each rotation. Whilst she was busy - she did regular hours and had time off.

She is now part time and sometimes becuase of how it works can go a whole wee k without working, and then she sometimes picks up locum shifts and gets £££££ for it.

Young lads in Afghanistan got blown up on 18k year. No one seemed to be bothered about those super low paid roles.

Spudina · 01/10/2022 07:15

Totally reasonable. I worked through the last junior Drs strike and we managed. The Consultants did all the ward rounds, decision making, test ordering etc supported by nurses. A lot of nurses undertake the extended roles historically undertaken by Junior Drs anyway. We can make it work for a couple of days. I fully support them, and I know our team of Drs will fully support the nurses when we walk out.

RitesOfSaussage · 01/10/2022 07:22

We support this.

Ds is looking seriously into studying medicine to become a doctor. Is there any way he can support striking Junior Doctors? We live near London.

RainbowCat26 · 01/10/2022 07:28

accidentally selected unreasonable 🤦‍♀️ But I think it’s reasonable. They seem to be vastly underpaid and overworked.

lannistunut · 01/10/2022 07:32

RainbowCat26 · 01/10/2022 07:28

accidentally selected unreasonable 🤦‍♀️ But I think it’s reasonable. They seem to be vastly underpaid and overworked.

Not that it matters but you can switch your vote

holidayelbow · 01/10/2022 07:36

@RainbowCat26 seem to be is key here. Any Job can look overworked and underpaid and there is a very effective campaign to get everyone to believe this of junior doctors. I don't know if it really is tbr universal truth

walkingonsunshinekat · 01/10/2022 07:44

Northernlurker · 30/09/2022 21:34

Well I work in the nhs and I don't think it's reasonable. Yes they are underpaid but if they aren't at work people are going to die. This is not 6 years ago, we can't absorb this safely. It's a total nightmare.

But people are dying right now waiting for treatment or even an ambulance and if nothing is done, more junior Doctors will leave, along with all the other nhs staff required.

Then there will be even more chaos in healthcare.

Any additional deaths are on the Tories, just as the current ones are, Truss borrowed 67billion to fund tax cuts, including removing £21billion in funding for the NHS via the reversal in NI rises.

Anyway, no health service union is saying they wont staff emergency care in any strike action.

sydenhamhiller · 01/10/2022 07:46

DC1 has just started at med school last week and his father and I (non medics but have medic friends) both tried to dissuade him.

Look at XXX who works in pharmaceuticals/ research/ the City. The hours they work, the bonuses. Think how aunt YYY and Uncle ZZZ’s stories (the hours, the under staffing, the mismanagement).

And that is terrible. Working in healthcare is amazing. We should have been encouraging it. But as my 16 year old rather histrionically said to dc1 ‘you’ll never make it to my wedding as a doctor’. (No wedding imminent!)

I am a primary teacher, and found that I cried 4 times on Monday. Cried nearly every day last week. Thought perhaps my age, dc1 starting at uni, me losing what marbles are left etc etc. Then at a well being staff meeting (my well being would have been enhanced being able to get my marking done), 4 other colleagues I spoke to had been crying at work that week. And they are just the ones I spoke to.

I know we are not being blown up abroad, and not as stressful as A&E, I tell myself that a lot when I feel desperate. But surely this is not right…

If anyone else in any other sector feels like this, I fully support their right to strike. And it is not a race to the bottom: agreeing that their terms and conditions are not right does not mean that others are not worse.

lobsterkiller · 01/10/2022 07:52

Of course they're reasonable. Striking happens when you have run out of options. I'm currently involved in an industrial dispute too. Its bloody awful, not where I want to be, but I'm damned if I'm/we going to be walked all over anymore.

Youaremysunshine14 · 01/10/2022 08:00

Absolutely reasonable. Truss' ally Simon Clarke, the so-called Levelling Up secretary, has given an interview to The Times overnight basically saying another age of austerity is coming because they plan to cut public spending again to pay off Govt debts – which, let's not forget, have accumulated even higher by them refusing to levy a windfall tax on the energy firms. Our public services are on their knees already and that is their solution to prop up tax cuts to higher earners. I hope every public sector worker from junior doctors to teachers to bin men to librarians goes on strike now. I will support every single one of them.

Foxinmygarden · 01/10/2022 08:09

As a hospital consultant, I fully support them. Many foundation year doctors today take home less pay than I did as a house officer 20 years ago.

Medicine is no longer an attractive career to many, because of the pay compared to other professions. We need to turn this around. We need motivated and intelligent doctors.

Consultants will be striking next because of the pensions fiasco.

GreenGreenArse · 01/10/2022 08:16

Agreeing with all of you. The Tories seem to be trying to kill off the NHS by underfunding it.

Cosycover · 01/10/2022 08:17

Long overdue I'd say.

MissyB1 · 01/10/2022 08:23

Foxinmygarden · 01/10/2022 08:09

As a hospital consultant, I fully support them. Many foundation year doctors today take home less pay than I did as a house officer 20 years ago.

Medicine is no longer an attractive career to many, because of the pay compared to other professions. We need to turn this around. We need motivated and intelligent doctors.

Consultants will be striking next because of the pensions fiasco.

@Foxinmygarden
Yrs my dh is a consultant and he will totally support his juniors striking, as he did last time.
And don’t get me started on the pension thing….. 🤦‍♀️😡

And all members of mumsnet need to know this Government are now planning more austerity measures to pay for those tax cuts. Your already badly damaged public services are about to get even worse.

TheHoover · 01/10/2022 08:27

Reasonable. They only got 2% in the last pay rise. Consultants and very senior managers by comparison got 4%.
Senior managers and clinicians got 1-2% (this includes the highest qualified and most experienced non-medical clinicians in the workforce ie nurse consultants, consultant pharmacists, senior matrons etc). BTW if anyone wants to say senior managers in the NHS don’t work hard, I am ready for a fist fight with you right now.

RitesOfSaussage · 01/10/2022 08:36

Medicine is no longer an attractive career to many, because of the pay compared to other professions. We need to turn this around. We need motivated and intelligent doctors.

Absolutely!

floorida · 01/10/2022 08:37

What has happened to doctors t&cs over the years? I have a couple of family friends who were/are consultants & they are all extremely comfortable.