Give us more or we’ll strike again, junior doctors warn

7 comments

1. ***The Telegraph reports:***

   Junior doctors will strike again if they are not awarded [“full pay restoration”](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/17/doctors-threaten-strikes-despite-pay-deal-politics-latest/) despite a 22 per cent deal, a senior figure at the British Medical Association (BMA) has said.

   [BMA members](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/british-medical-association/) voted on Monday to accept the offer from Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, [of 22.3 per cent on average](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/16/junior-doctors-accept-22pc-pay-rise-but-could-strike-again/) over two years.

   But [Dr Vivek Trivedi](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/30/junior-doctors-strike-nhs/), the junior doctors’ committee co-chairman, said that the deal was a “compromise” and “the first step towards our goal” to have full pay restoration.

   He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “[Mr Streeting](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/wes-streeting/) has talked about our pay falling behind inflation, and has talked about a journey to fair pay, and sees that journey occurring via the independent pay review bodies awarding their regular annual uplifts, and he wants to restore confidence in that process, which doctors don’t have for a number of reasons.

   “But if that process does play out the way he envisages, the way that maybe it used to in the past, and that does inspire the confidence of doctors, then of course, there’s no reason for doctors to go back into dispute over pay and strike again.

   “But if that doesn’t happen, and the Government does not correct that, and does not continue our journey to full pay restoration, which is what doctors have been calling for to keep their colleagues here so that medicine can remain an attractive profession in this country, then the Government will find doctors back in dispute.”

   He added: “This offer puts a doctor who was before this, earning £15 an hour only on £17 now, which of course is an improvement, and it does mark the start of that journey, but the journey’s not over.”

   **Read more:** [**https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/17/give-us-more-or-well-strike-again-junior-doctors-warn/**](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/17/give-us-more-or-well-strike-again-junior-doctors-warn/)

2. We need to train loads more doctors in the UK 

3. Who could’ve seen this coming after the ‘no strings attached’ pay rise they were just handed.

4. I don’t know about you guys, but I would rather my doctor be among the best brightest of their generation.

   If we keep worsening their pay and working conditions then, guess what, Medicine will stop attracting some of the best and brightest. Then, we will be left with Non-doctors (eg PAs and AHPs) attempting to provide medical care

   I would rather be looked after by a capable Doctor Who deserves a little bit more money, then someone who failed to get into medical school, like a PA

5. Nice misleading headline from the Torygraph – they are actually saying that they expect an above-inflation pay rise each year going forward.

   But then let’s not let the actual facts get in the way of a good inflammatory headline eh?

6. This is just more anti-doctor propaganda from the Torygraph. If we continue to have althea lowest paid doctors in the developed world, working in the most underinvested hospitals, we will lose our domestic doctors and need to recruit ever more from lower income countries.

7. I think Nursing, Midwifery and Doctors degrees should be free for anyone whose parents earn less than a given £ threshold. Helps break poverty cycles and also eases pressure on the NHS. It would also mean less incentive to strike as there’d be more competition.