Doctors' strike causes major disruption at English hospitals

[MowCowWhoHow III]

Source: AFP

London (AFP) - Tens of thousands of junior doctors in England went on strike Tuesday, causing major disruption to hospitals in the first walkout of its kind for 40 years.

They are providing only emergency cover during a 24-hour walkout which started at 0800 GMT, meaning that several thousand routine operations have had to be cancelled, along with appointments and tests.

The strike is over a new type of contract which the government says will improve healthcare at night and at weekends but medics say would drastically reduce their pay.

"The new contract is not fair, it's not safe and from the beginning, we as a profession have been bullied, intimidated and threatened by the Department of Health," said Florence Dalton, 29, a psychiatrist picketing at St Pancras hospital in central London.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/doctors-strike-causes-major-disruption-uk-hospitals-112127098.html

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[LittleGirl]

1. Found on Facebook

Dr. Rant
Dear members of the public. There will be all manner of negative spin against the junior doctors today. Here is a list doing the rounds on facebook to counteract a lot of the lies and mistruths. I don't know the original author - please could they let me know if they'd like to be credited.

JEREMY’S SPIN AND THE TRUTH BEHIND IT:
SPIN: “Saturday is a normal working day”
TRUTH: no it is not – it is the weekend and has been for some time.

SPIN: “Working at 9am is the same as working at 9pm”
TRUTH: no it is not – it is much darker, colder and antisocial.

SPIN: “Patients are being put in danger by strikes”
TRUTH: No they are not. Our wonderful, experienced, supportive consultants are ensuring this is not the case – today all patients will see a consultant.

SPIN: “75% of current doctors will see a salary increase”
TRUTH: No they wont, this is only if we work “within legal limits” and I am yet to find a doctor who works within legal limits. Furthermore 100% of future doctors will see a PAY CUT as they will not benefit from payment protection.

SPIN: “doctors will receive an 11% increase in basic pay”
TRUTH: this would be nice if we weren’t also getting a 30% CUT IN TOTAL PAY.

SPIN: “7 studies in the last fives years talk about the weekend effect…”
TRUTH: Not one study shows the ‘weekend effect’ is due to a lack of doctors, we already work 7 days a week under the current contract. There must be an ulterior motive what is it Jeremy? Save money? Privatise NHS?

SPIN: “We made a manifesto promise for a 7 day NHS…”
TRUTH: A 7 day NHS already exists Jeremy. Your manifesto is a tactical list of flimsy promises made up to win votes, it does not care for patients, it does not care for NHS front line staff, it is not evidenced based and it will not improve patient care. If only you spent as much time and effort trying to improve the NHS as you do trying to endorse your flimsy manifesto.

SPIN: “Doctors are being mislead by the BMA”
TRUTH: No we are not, we are all intelligent, experienced and reasonable people who spend our lives interpreting complicated information, our patient’s lives depend on it. We have looked at the DOH proposals and 98% of us agreed that we had no other option but to reluctantly strike.

So Jeremy, please stop these games, stop spreading lies and work with us to save the NHS.
‪#?juniorcontract‬ ‪#?juniordoctorstrike‬ ‪#?BMA‬ ‪#?istandwithjohann‬

[Nihil]

6. Thanks for posting that ...

It explains why there is a lot of general public support for this strike
(despite what the government and their mouthpieces would have you believe).

[LittleGirl]

8. if you read

the facebook post comments, there's a lot of support.

[ananda]

2. It's arch-conservative health secretary Jeremy Hunt they're addressing..

... NOT lefty Jeremy Corbyn. Here's a good summary of the situation:

http://www.theguardian.com/society/live/2016/jan/12/junior-doctors-strike-in-england-live-updates

[CanSocDem]

3. "Jr. Doctors" don't understand public health.

We have the same problem in Canada fighting off the free marketeers....

Only young newly-minted doctors worry about their salary.

"Public health...What's that????"

They're so young and inexperienced that they don't even know how ineffective a doctors strike is. Historically, a doctors strike has resulted in fewer people needing their services. People stop getting sick.



.

[PADemD]

4. Doctors' strikes and mortality: a review.

A paradoxical pattern has been suggested in the literature on doctors' strikes: when health workers go on strike, mortality stays level or decreases.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18849101

[CanSocDem]

10. Thank you. (eom)

[Sunlei]

5. good only 24 hours and emergency cover continues. Juniors should cut the 'for profit' out of care.

Same in America, someone makes a fortune in profitson $500 a night rooms and $1,000 a bag saline water.

[Bad Dog]

7. I support the strike.

The NHS is wonderful. The Tories, who can afford to pay for private health care, are trying to cut corners and make it less safe, like they always do when in power.

Doctors already work weekends and always have. A 1st World service requires 1st World funding.

[pennylane100]

9. I have not lived in the UK for a long time

but reading about this strike from afar makes me wonder if The Witch is really dead. Has Maggie's spirit installed itself in Jeremy Hunt's soul?

[Nihil]

12. Her spirit didn't even leave office ...

... Major, Blair, Cameron, ... all have the same attitude ...

[Bad Dog]

11. Freudian slips

Cameron a Co are all devotees of the Thatch. In the meantime here's what James Naughtie called Jeremy Hunt.

Followed by Andrew Marr

And now Sky News are getting in on the act.