NEWS
EVENTS
Strike 1 For Junior Doctors
With the festive period done and dusted, the time came once again for the country's aggrieved junior doctors to discuss terms with government officials. However, unsurprisingly, the talks have broke down and the nation's young doctors have subsequently announced a 24-hour strike starting next Tuesday, 12th January.
Two more strikes have been pencilled in too; for 48-hours on 26th January, and a further 24-hours on 10th February.
These strikes come on the back of the disagreement over the wages and working hours of the junior doctors. Despite being offered a rise in pay of 11%, other aspects of the deal were deemed unacceptable by the young professionals such as the curbing of the number of 'unsociable hours' in a week - a means of extra pay for those needing it. The government plan to roll out 24/7 effective services in England as soon as possible, but the British Medical Association (BMA) have raised their concerns over the doctors becoming overworked, therefore putting both themselves and their patients at risk.
Due to the fact that there are around 55,000 junior doctors in England, there are going to be thousands of hospital appointments and non-emergency operations being cancelled or postponed.
However, both the government and the junior doctors have already indicated that they intend to continue negotiations over the contracts ahead of the strikes, so watch this space.
