News / Health
‘Please, Jeremy: stop bullying us’
Hundreds of junior doctors took to picket lines across Bristol on Wednesday in a second 24-hour walkout over proposed new contracts.
At the last strike we asked them for their messages to patients. This time, we asked them to give us their messages (without swearing) to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Michelle Melly, 31, hematology registrar at St Michael’s:
Rhys Harrison, 31, registrar at Bristol Eye Hospital:
Ben Byrne, surgical registrar at Bristol Royal Infirmary:
Under proposed new rules, junior doctors’ standard working hours would increase from 7am-7pm, Monday to Friday, to 7am-10pm, Monday to Friday and 7am-7pm on Saturdays. This will mean they lose out on additional pay as evenings and weekends would no longer been seen as overtime.
The government has also offered doctors an 11 per cent rise in basic pay. But the British Medical Association (BMA) argue that the cut to premium hours works out as an effective pay cut, while putting doctors under strain by forcing them to work more unsociable hours.
The government has dismissed the strike as “completely unnecessary” and blamed the BMA on breaking an deal already struck over Saturday working. In a statement the Department of Health said: “It is very disappointing that tens of thousands of patients and NHS staff have been inconvenienced by the BMA.
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