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That's the nature of the modern media age...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Striking puts people at risk!
Incidentally I think striking should just be made illegal in general!
@tampadragon, I suggest that you read some history - specifically about conditions in Victorian sweatshops before the workers formed unions and went on strike.
Training posts are unfilled, locum numbers are ever increasing, consultant posts are unfilled. There is no incentive whatsoever to take up a training post in England. Even Scotland, which isn't imposing the contract, struggles to fill posts. Last year 1 out of 8 posts in acute medicine was filled in Scotland.
Ironically the cost to the government will be higher under the new contract as a locum costs about 4-5x what a permanent staff member costs.
The demoralisation has reached the stage where doctors no longer care if the NHS collapses. In the long term they'll all be better off under whatever private system replaces the NHS. The strikes were about ensuring that rotas were safe for patients and that medicine was still a viable career option for the best educated, most motivated people coming out of university.
May's missing a trick here, she could be clearing out those skeletons like fury this week.
A group of people who have got straight A's at GCSE, then 4 A levels, then an aptitude test to even get into a competitive 5 year university course costing them £9k a year, then followed by a minimum of 9 years training on the job working long hours, nights and weekends, during which you're expected to take several sets of professional exams and do CPD the whole way through in your own time, before finally you get a stable job at the end of that. You want them to do that out of the goodness of their heart? Seems optimistic.
The NHS isn't a charity. There's plenty of scope in MSF etc to do that sort of thing if they feel inclined to.
I'm not saying doctors don't care about their patients, but to expect them to provide excellent and compassionate specialised healthcare for the same pay as a night shift shelf stacker in Tesco is ridiculous.
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
Junior doctors have formally admitted defeat in their battle over a new contract, abandoning the threat of strike action to work with the government.
The British Medical Association faced an immediate backlash from members for the decision. The outcry highlighted the internal divisions that ultimately forced the BMA to end a series of walkouts including the first all-out strikes in NHS history.
Peter Campbell, acting chairman of the BMA junior doctors committee, told members in an email: “With the contract being introduced as existing contracts expire, we believe the best way of achieving the best outcome for all our members is to work with the government and NHS employers to monitor the implementation of the contract and raise additional issues.”
The union has formally relinquished its legal mandate to strike, meaning it would have to ballot its members again to take further action.
Dr Campbell, who took over at the weekend after his predecessor, Ellen McCourt, decided her position was untenable, said that he had opted for talks with the government “in trade” for ending the mandate for industrial action.
Last year 98 per cent of junior doctors who voted endorsed industrial action after talks broke down.
Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, wants to change the way doctors are reimbursed for working weekends to get more of them on the wards out of hours. He has promised a rise in basic salary to compensate. After walkouts that excluded emergency care in January and February, in March junior doctors walked out of A&E units for the first time.
A compromise deal in May appeared to have settled the dispute but doctors rejected the agreement in a ballot over the summer, exposing deep divisions in the union over its aims and methods. Plans for further five-day strikes in September were cancelled after a revolt from junior doctors.
The Junior Doctors Alliance, set up to continue the fight, condemned the BMA for making the decision without consultation. A spokeswoman said: “This is unacceptable. The BMA is a democratic union and its decision-making and actions should be transparent to its membership. It is clear that our union prefers secrecy rather than transparency when dealing with the government and its members. It’s no wonder so many doctors — at all grades — are losing trust in the BMA.”
Newly qualified doctors began moving on to the new contract last month. The Department of Health said: “It’s welcome news for patients that the BMA has called off industrial action. The NHS is getting on with the job of implementing this contract and we are determined to make sure junior doctors are supported during this process.”
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
GWR main line electrification has been deferred. Again.
http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/infrastructure/single-view/view/great-western-electrification-projects-deferred.html
*edit* not "main line", just Didcot - Oxford, Bristol Parkway - Temple Meads, Bath Spa - Temple Meads, and branches to Henley and Windsor.
This is why doctors are leaving the NHS and working for private providers. The private pensions are crap, but other conditions are generally better.