Junior doctors in Harrogate plan to stage a full walkout this week, over two days.
This strike, unlike previous stikes, includes junior doctors from accident and emergency, maternity and mental health crisis teams.
- 08:00 to 17:00 on 26 and 27 April 2016
The strike is part of a long-standing dispute over plans to implement a new contract for junior doctors.
The term Junior doctor covers medics who have just graduated from medical school through to those with more than a decade of experience.
The government has described the current arrangements as “outdated” and “unfair”, saying that they were introduced in the 1990s.
The dispute dates back to 2012, when the Department of Health called for changes to junior doctors’ contracts in order to update terms and conditions that were agreed in the nineties.
The government say that three quarters of junior doctors will see a pay increase, but junior doctors say that it is not about pay, and that the new contracts are unsafe for patients.
The British Medical Association (BMA) says the proposed contracts are “bad for patients, bad for junior doctors and bad for the NHS” and believe that junior doctors could face pay cuts of between 15 and 30 per cent as a result.
The Government’s Proposal
Salary
- Average basic salary increase of 13.5 per cent
- Basic starting salary of £27,000 compared to £22,636 now – 19 per cent
- Three quarters of doctors receive a take home pay rise
Over-time
- Doctors receive time plus 30 per cent for any hours worked between 5pm-9pm on Saturday and 7am-9pm on Sunday
- Doctors working one in four Saturdays or more will receive a pay premium of 30 per cent for all Saturday hours
- Doctors receive time and a half for any hours worked Monday – Sunday between 9pm – 7am
Working hours
- Max number of hours worked every week by junior doctors from 91 to 72
- Max number of consecutive nights a doctor can work cut from seven to four
- No doctor ever rostered two weekends in a row
Safe working
- Every hospital to have a safety guardian to monitor safe working
- Financial penalties for hospitals that breach safe working hours to be paid to the safety guardian and reinvested in junior doctors education and training
Junior Dr Representative in Harrogate, Deborah Goldfield said:
We will once again have a picket line on Tuesday and Wednesday outside Harrogate Hospital from 8am-1pm.
We then plan to conduct a march into town from 1pm to conduct a “Meet the Drs” event in order to engage with the public.
I would also like to highlight a short film which we put together which features HDFT staff supporting junior Drs Look on You Tube “Yorkshire Supports Junior Drs.
