As a doctor I am regulated by the General Medical Council (GMC) and I have mixed feelings towards this body. Its function is to protect the public from bad doctors. This is simultaneously reassuring and terrifying. Not all doctors who find themselves in front of a fitness to practise tribunal are bad and the experience is, […]
Category: Junior doctors
Hoong-Wei Gan: Strike on, strike off: why junior doctors are fighting for their patients
Striking is not integral to any doctor’s identity. As others have pointed out over the last few months, a doctor pledges, before anything to else, to “first do no harm.” However, as doctors we no longer have to decide between amputating a gangrenous limb or leaving a patient to die. Our decision-making is becoming an […]
Henry Murphy: Resignation to Jeremy
Another blog about the junior doctor’s contract, another march, and another strike. What is left to be said? The argument has been detailed in every way; with eloquence, with anger, with emotional outpourings, and cold hard evidence. Under our belt now are two big marches and one big strike, with the support of two choirs […]
Junior doctors’ strike February 2016: Live blog
This week, junior doctors in England will be taking industrial action for the second time in as many months after failing to reach agreement with the government over their proposed new contract. The strike action will result in junior doctors offering emergency care only for 24 hours from 8am on Wednesday 10 February to 8am […]
Patrice Baptiste: What is the future of the NHS?
During my foundation years I wasn’t completely sure about what specialty I wanted to pursue within medicine so I decided to take a year out of training. Although not my passion, I thought a lot about general practice as this encompasses a broad range of specialties, including the possibility of a “special interest,” as well […]
Sebastian Taylor et al: The junior doctors’ dispute: manufacturing bad faith
The rollercoaster ride of dispute talks between the British Medical Association representing “junior” doctors and the Secretary of State for Health points either to incompetent negotiations or to the political value of failure. Jeremy Hunt has claimed that 15 of 16 points were resolved, and that money was the only remaining issue. Junior doctors disagree. […]
Elizabeth Wortley: What the junior doctors’ strike taught me
Yesterday I came off the picket line having enjoyed some lively conversations with my colleagues. As passing drivers honked their horns in support, one of my colleagues observed that it’s a shame we don’t get together to provide more support for each other regularly. This started a discussion about our attitudes towards each other on a […]
Richard Smith: Does the NHS meet the needs of junior doctors?
Bain, the global consultancy, produces what it calls “a pyramid of employee needs,” and on the day when junior doctors are striking it’s instructive to see how well the NHS is doing in meeting their needs. The bottom of the pyramid is “satisfied employees,” and the very fact that junior doctors are striking suggests that […]
Jessamy Bagenal: Junior doctors strike action—frustration and mistrust
Junior doctors received a text on Monday 4 January informing them that the negotiations over the junior doctor’s contract had ended. Industrial action in England is going to proceed. It left one feeling somewhat flat. The first day of industrial action will be on the 12 January when only emergency care will be provided for […]
Jessamy Bagenal: Junior doctors—What are we fighting for?
So what? There has been a huge increase in the number of junior doctors who have joined the BMA since June when Jeremy Hunt began new tactics with NHS staff. Repeated inflammatory and insulting statements like “when you turn medicine into a Monday to Friday profession” have enraged doctors to an unprecedented state. The strike […]