Doctors say they could be forced to go on strike for the first time in 40 years.

The Department of Health is pushing through a new contract for junior doctors – essentially any doctor who isn’t a consultant – which will make them work much longer hours and take a huge 40 per cent pay cut.

The proposals are so drastic that more than 45,000 people have signed a petition calling for strike action.


‘We urge the Government not to impose a contract that is unsafe and unfair,’ Andrew Collier, co-chair of the UK Junior Doctors Committee, said. ‘We will resist a contract that is bad for patients, bad for junior doctors and bad for the NHS.’

New #juniorcontract for #juniordoctors = goodbye new recruits, goodbye GP trainees, goodbye patient safety, and goodbye NHS. Time to strike? — Dr Christian Jessen (@DoctorChristian) September 19, 2015

When medics went on strike in 1975 over increased working hours and massive pay cuts, thousands of operations had to be cancelled. The London Ambulance Service declared an emergency and was only able to attend the most serious cases.



If doctors strike now, it is argue that the same would happen again. So why would they do it?

Ridiculous working hours

At the moment junior doctors work a mix of days, overnights and weekends, often doing 13-hour shifts or more.

Dear NHS EmployersCc: Jeremy HuntIt's 07.15 on a Saturday morning; I'm on my way to work a 13 hour shift. If these… Posted by Sarah Hallett on Friday, September 18, 2015

But under their current contracts, employers can at least be penalised for making them work too many ‘excessive’ hours. This means that, although incredibly uncomfortable, doctors at least won’t be dropping dead on the ward.

It also means that we, as patients, won’t be treated by someone so physically exhausted they can barely function.

Whenever I get a weekend off I spend the whole of Saturday catching up on sleep and Sunday catching up on reading/studying #juniordoctors — Chelcie J (@ByChelcie) September 20, 2015

The new contract, however, wants to change the definition of ‘sociable hours’ meaning that doctors may be forced to work even more nights and weekends without being able to object.

On top of that, they will only be entitled to one 20 minute break every six hours.

Massive pay cuts

Under their current contracts junior doctors are paid a basic salary of around £22,000, but can earn a few grand extra if they work a lot of weekends and overnight shifts.

Under the new contract doctors will have to take an estimated pay cut of around 30% to 40%.

£22,000 sounds like a fair bit, but when you consider they typically have five to six years of medical school student loans, and £1,000 to £2,000 a year in mandatory medical association memberships to pay, it’s not a huge amount.

(Picture: Ankush Dhariwal/Facebook)

Plus, there’s no denying they earn their money.

As blogger Another Angry Junior Doctor put it, in their first year ‘I was screamed at and vomited on, got stuck with a needle, fell downstairs running to a cardiac arrest at 4am, cried in the hospital car park, had nightmares about my dead patients and lived in constant, unrelenting terror of making a mistake that accidentally kills someone.

‘I earned that pay cheque. I trained for six years. I took on more responsibility aged 25 than most people do over the course of their entire lives.’

Doctors will end up leaving

There are fears we’ll end up with fewer doctors as a result.

‘People too far down to change their careers will leave to work elsewhere where they are treated better, and those considering careers in medicine won’t,’ Dr Roochi Trikha, a

Haematology registrar in Hammersmith, said.

‘This may happen precipitously and then hospitals will be left desperately trying to find doctors to deliver the utopia that Mr Hunt promised.



‘One can only think that this is the health secretary’s attempt to dismantle the NHS completely, which as is stands is one of the finest in the world.’

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt (Picture: PA)

Ankush Dhariwal, also a Haematology registrar in London, added: ‘This is part of the government’s continuing campaign to undermine our profession and in turn undermine the NHS and ultimately set it up for failure.

‘They are well aware that the ultimate consequence would be to drive doctors abroad to sunnier climes and appropriate pay, thus weakening the NHS and taking it a few steps closer to privatisation. As a country we need to stand up for our doctors and our health service.’

Junior doctors aren’t all young

Junior doctors aren’t just 24-year-olds fresh out of uni. A doctor is technically a ‘junior’ until they become a consultant – which is usually when they’re in their late 30s.

Patient safety

Would you want your life in the hands of a person who was at the tail end of a 15-hour shift with only two very short breaks, who was not only physically exhausted from work but also mentally drained from worrying about not paying off their mortgage, childcare and student loans?

No? Didn’t think so.

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