Determined junior doctors fight on
Junior doctors are preparing for three 48-hour strikes to fight the imposition of a new contract. As part of that preparation 25 junior doctors presented a petition to the Department of Health with 50,000 signatures on 24 February. Sarah Sachs-Eldridge spoke to some of them:
Junior doctor Jeanna Strutinksy-Mason, photo by Sarah Sachs-Eldridge (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)
Jeanna, a junior doctor from Leicester, explained that the BMA is very firm: “I think that we’re determined. Morale has been affected by the government deciding to impose the contract, despite 54,000 junior doctors acting as whistle-blowers saying it isn’t a safe contract. Now we have a bit of renewed purpose.”
She explained that “we’re part of a grassroots effort called ‘Meet the Doctors’. We’ve been campaigning across the country, engaging with the public and collecting signatures for a petition addressed to David Cameron about the unfairness of the contract.”
“So that’s what we’re doing today – delivering the 50,000 signatures we’ve collected since November to the Department of Health. A lot of times people asked to sign – we didn’t even approach them!”
Hunt
But this is not just aimed at Jeremy Hunt, Jeanna said. “It’s more than just about Hunt. David Cameron is the prime minister and he doesn’t have to impose this on us.”
We discussed the new round of action and the potential for uniting with other workers. Jeanna said: “I’m from the East Midlands and locally I’ve been getting quite a lot of interest from local branches of different unions asking me to come and speak and explain to them what the issues are. I don’t think this is just about our contract but about the very future of the NHS.”
I asked Jeanna what trade union members can do to back them up. She said: “The first thing to do is to talk to people about it – get in touch with us.”
“We’ll happily come and chat to people about the dispute. I know there’s been some growing interest in having demonstrations that are multi-union and if people think they have something that is worth balloting their membership for regarding industrial action then I think they should go for it.”
I also spoke to Max, a junior doctor from Manchester. “There’s no secret that if this contract is imposed then they’ll roll it out to the rest of the healthcare profession.”
“From there it will only be rolled out further in terms of the public sector. We’re worried that if we allow the conditions of our work to mean that every day is the same and there’s no weekend you end up living to work. We think that’s completely wrong.”
