Junior doctors in the BMA are on strike for three days in December and six in January continuing their bold fight for a pay rise that makes up for losses suffered over the last decade.
Socialist Party members once again have supported the picket lines.
On the picket line outside the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, one junior doctor based in the Black Country told Nick Hart:
“I get asked to come in and do overtime shifts on a team that should have eight doctors but is down to four. And then when it comes to getting paid, I’m spending what little free time and energy I have chasing it up when the extra hours don’t appear on my payslip!
“Most of the senior managers in charge of HR and staffing have no experience in clinical healthcare. And the ones that do have been off the frontline for so long they can’t relate to the job as it is now.
“There should be more input from junior doctors and other grades in how hospital trusts are managed, with people from a range of backgrounds asked to put themselves forwards.
“If it wasn’t for the health worker exemption, the pay of junior doctors would be too low to meet the Tories’ new income threshold for issuing visas!”
