+1000
"You say it is unsafe to work 'unsociable hours' on a Saturday but then invalidate that claim by saying you want more money to work on a Saturday. Do you run on money, does it fuel you to be a better doctor?"
I agree with the fact that more should be done for NHS staff, personally I think a scheme should be in place wherein Uni debt is wiped if they obtain the degree/ qualification and serve a minimum period in the NHS dependant on role.
I find this strike action pitiful, the belief of an inherent right to more money (13.5%!) when these intelligent, educated people knew exactly what they signed up for at the time is pathetic and a sad but true reflection on a generation. It is unsociable at times and it is exhausting but the same can be said for dozens of careers, don't see how junior doctors are more deserving than soldiers, police, fire 'where's the picket line?' service, carers, coast guard etc etc.
It's a sad state of affairs when the Govt has to take a hardline response but in this case I'm fully onside with them, I don't see what choice they have because if they cave in to whatever astronomical demands the junior doctors want then you can be certain others will follow suit. The tube drivers only need to wake up on the wrong side of the bed to strike over their outrageously low 55k a year.
i think you are mixing multiple points. let me explain...
(declaration of interest: i am a junior doctor, but hear me out)
1) there
is no more money. as is stated by HMG, the contract changes is supposedly "cost neutral". 13.5% rise in basic pay does not offset the 40% loss in banding. Hence the use of "pay protection" aka divide-and-conquer, aka screw-your-future-colleagues. to the average junior doctor what it'll mean is static pay at best (or like the past decade, pay cut in real terms).
2) there is already a 24/7 NHS ***emergency*** service. you know the 43% that hunt spoke about going into work? yes, that is the emergency portion of the junior doctor workforce. 20,000 of them.
3) there is already a large gaping hole in the medical/nursing workforce. i put to you this example:
this is at the hospital i work at. just covering general medicine. not including surgery, or paediatrics, or orthopaedics, or obs/gynae, or urology.
if there isnt enough people to provide good routine (ie not emergency) 5-day care, how can it be expected that routine 7-day care can be well provided?
the answer is, well simple, you either a) hire more staff, or b) stretch your staff more thinly. HMG doesn't want to do (a), so it is doing (b).
if you stretch your already thin staff even more thinly, there's only one thing that can happen, and it aint a good thing. hence the #unsafe portion of the argument
4) the #unfair portion of the argument is that to do the #unsafe bit, the staff will have to work for longer and harder, and at unsociable hours.
now you may ask, well people in the retail sector, in mcdonalds already work for flat rates at weekends.
well that may be true, but then why not compare to the lawyers, barristers, dentists, city bankers, actuaries etc. apples and oranges.
no one's asking for a pay rise, just not a pay
cut, whilst working longer and harder, which in essesence a pay cut as $/hr is markedly reduced.
all that has been asked for is fair remuneration for fair work.
2nd declaration of interest: i'm not from the uk. i dont care what happens to the NHS, whether it stays nationalised or privatised, but you british public don't know you had it so good until it's lost.
i'd just like to end with this:
it's no secret what the end game is. junior doc contracts are the first. then the consultant contract, then nurses/allied healthcare professionals/porters etc.
