Within just a few minutes of being on the junior doctors picket lines in Leeds you could tell the level of public support they had. Not only were cars tooting their horns as they passed, but a video screen van parked up next to the picket with a supportive message which no-one from the BMA knew where they were from and patients getting out of their taxi to go to the hospital stopping and clapping their support.
Iain Dalton, Leeds Socialist Party
Junior doctors voted to take strike action by a huge majority, but the government hasn’t yet negotiated seriously with them. Doctors complained that Steve Barclay only turned up to one meeting with the BMA where he refused to negotiate and then only contacted the BMA to offer negotiations late on Friday evening if they called off the strikes.
As one doctor explained, pay over the last fifteen years has fallen behind to the tune of around 26%! Some junior doctors are effectively working for an hourly rate of £14 an hour.