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Connecting the newer Perth Children's Hospital with the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.
Opened in 1958 as the Perth Chest Hospital and later named in honour of Sir Charles Gairdner, governor of Western Australia from 1951 to 1963, it is part of the Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre (QEII MC). It is colloquially referred to as Charlie's.
All clinical specialities are provided, with the exception of complex burns, paediatrics, obstetrics, gynaecology and major trauma. It houses the state's only comprehensive cancer treatment centre, and is the state's principal hospital for neurosurgery and liver transplants. The hospital is closely associated with the nearby University of Western Australia as well as Curtin University, Notre Dame University, and Edith Cowan University.
Handling over 76,000 admissions annually, SCGH has 600 beds, and treats approximately 420,000 patients each year. As of 2012 some 5,500 staff are employed. In 2009, it was the second hospital in Australia to be awarded Magnet recognition by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.
Dr. Fahmida Mirza, sometimes also spelled as Fehmida Mirza (born December 20, 1956), is a medical doctor, agriculturist and businesswoman from Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan who was elected as the first female Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan on March 19, 2008.[1] She is also the first female parliamentary speaker in the Muslim world,[citation needed]. Mirza is currently serving as President of Pakistan in an acting capacity for President Asif Ali Zardari, widower of assasinated Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
She has been elected to Parliament for three consecutive terms in 1997, 2002 and 2008 as MNA from Badin, in Sindh.
Dr. Mirza graduated with a medical degree from Liaquat Medical College, Jamshoro, Sindh, in 1982 and did her house job (residency) in gynaecology and paediatrics.
She was trained as a doctor at Liaquat Medical College, Jamshoro, Sindh, in 1982. Before entering politics, Dr. Fahmida Mirza ran an advertising agency Informachine, later renamed Information Communication Limited (ICL). In 1997 she contested elections successfully from her husband's former constituency of Badin, Sindh, and has continued to be a parliamentarian since then. She is one of the few women elected from a non-reserved constituency.
winter exam is just around the corner and i am so nervous.there are still a lot of materials should be covered with in this short period of time.
I have a lot of pics to share as well yet I have to put that aside first because I might focus on photography rather than my paediatrics and ophtalmology text book if i keep on uploading now.
wish me all the best mate!
Eid Mubarak! Korban Bairam! Happy New Year 2007
Seminar on School Psychiatry by Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital And Research Centre
Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital And Research Centre Invites you to a Seminar on School Psychiatry Supported by The Bombay Psychiatric Society on Wednesday, 13th January, 2016 between 09:00 am to 04:30 pm at Convention Centre, Level 1, Kapol Niwas.
Instruction Manual for Android Users of RFHApp©
Find Paediatrics in Mumbai at Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre
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First Pediatric Cardiac Sciences CME on Congenital Heart Defect at Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital And Research Centre
Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital And Research Centre organising First Pediatric Cardiac Sciences CME on Congenital Heart Defect on Sunday, 27th December 2015 between 08:30 am to 05:00 pm at Convention Centre, Level 1, Kapol Niwas.
Instruction Manual for Android Users of RFHApp©
Congenital Heart Surgery in Mumbai
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Sir Fred Joyce Schonell & Florence Eleanor Schonell (1902 - 1962):
Sir Fred Joyce Schonell (1900 - 1969), vice-chancellor and educationist, and Florence Eleanor Schonell (1902 - 1962), educationist, were husband and wife. Fred was born on 3 August 1900 in Perth, son of Edward William Schonell, a schoolmaster from Victoria, and his English-born wife Agnes Mary, née Mawer. He attended (on a scholarship) Perth Modern School, qualified as a teacher at the Training College, Claremont, in 1920, and taught in turn at Perth Boys' and Highgate State schools. Eleanor was born on 31 October 1902 at Durban, South Africa, daughter of Francis William de Bracey Waterman, a furniture-dealer from England, and his wife Maud Rebecca, née Turner. After arriving in Perth, she completed teacher-training at Claremont in 1922, and taught (1923-26) at primary schools at Subiaco and Jolimont. She and Fred were part-time students at the University of Western Australia and graduated (B.A., 1925) together. They were married on 21 December 1926 at St Alban's Anglican Church, Perth, and were to have two children.
When Fred was awarded a Hackett studentship, the couple sailed for England in 1928. He studied at King's College and the London Day Training College, University of London (Dip.Ed., 1929; Ph.D., 1932; D.Lit., 1944). His Ph.D. thesis was on the diagnosis and remediation of difficulties in spelling. A lecturer (from 1933) at Goldsmiths' College, he carried out an extensive programme of research in schools. In 1942 he was appointed professor of education at the University College of Swansea, University of Wales. He rejuvenated a department suffering from the disruption caused by World War II. While his educational interests broadened from remedial education to include 'adolescence' and 'community involvement', he continued to be mainly concerned with the learning problems of primary-school children. Backwardness in the Basic Subjects (Edinburgh, 1942) and The Psychology and Teaching of Reading (Edinburgh, 1945) were his most important publications. His two series of reading books for children, the Happy Venture (Edinburgh, 1939-50) and Wide Range (Edinburgh, 1948-53), were used for several decades in schools throughout the English-speaking world, apart from the United States of America. A number of his books—some of which were co-authored with Eleanor—ran to several editions and reputedly sold 'millions' of copies.
In 1947 Schonell became professor of education at the University of Birmingham. Taking major responsibility for expanding the research activities of its institute of education, he developed a project that covered a wide range of topics: methods of teaching English to boys, the reading interests and library borrowings of children, the suitability of textbooks and leisure-reading books, selection of entrants for the teaching profession, and methods of teaching English and history. He was founding director of a remedial education centre: it tested and helped local students, and provided a base for research and in-service activities. To train teachers in aspects of remedial education, he instituted a diploma in educational psychology in 1948. That year he also established a journal, Educational Review.
Schonell received many invitations to lecture abroad. He declined the offer of a chair at the University of London to return to Australia where he became foundation professor of education at the University of Queensland in 1950. By 1952 a remedial education centre had opened with a former student from Birmingham, J. A. Richardson, as deputy-director. Schonell inaugurated a journal, The Slow Learning Child (first published in 1954), and introduced certificate courses to train remedial teachers and teachers of children with intellectual disabilities.
As head of the department of education, Schonell again displayed a broad range of interests. Projects included the oral language of Australian labourers, education of young Aborigines, maladjustment and school failure of intelligent children, social and educational problems of migrants' children, and the effect of the Queensland state scholarship examination on curriculum and teaching methods. The talented researchers whom he recruited included Betty Watts and R. J. Andrews. Schonell published Essentials in Teaching and Testing Spelling (Edinburgh, 1953) and, with Eleanor, Diagnosis and Remedial Teaching in Arithmetic (Edinburgh, 1957). He influenced teacher-training in Queensland by introducing a postgraduate diploma in education and a bachelor of education degree available to teachers by correspondence.
Eleanor Schonell had enrolled at University College, London (B.A. Hons, 1938; M.A., 1940), and written her master's thesis on the diagnosis of difficulties in written English. She collaborated with her husband in producing standardized ways to test children's academic attainment; these tests were published in Diagnostic and Attainment Testing (Edinburgh, 1950). At the University of Birmingham (Ph.D., 1950), she began to study children with cerebral palsy. With the support of J. M. Smellie, professor of paediatrics and child health, she developed procedures for assessing the intellectual and educational characteristics of such children. She also conducted surveys on cerebral palsy. While holding a research fellowship at the university, she worked (part time) as an educational psychologist at the Carlson House School for Spastics, which she had helped to establish in 1948 with funding from Paul Cadbury.
On her return to Australia, Dr Schonell took an active interest in the Queensland Spastic Children's Welfare League; she served on its medical and educational house committee (1951-61) and as honorary psychologist (1958). Her book, Educating Spastic Children (Edinburgh, 1956), found a receptive audience in the U.S.A. as well as in Commonwealth countries. She initiated educational and psychological testing of children with cerebral palsy, and wrote a chapter on the subject in Recent Advances in Cerebral Palsy (London, 1958), edited by R. S. Illingworth. Committed to providing special education for these children, she saw it as a means of taking them from institutions into the community. Her approach to life was generous and humane. She died of cerebral glioma on 22 May 1962 in Brisbane and was cremated.
After serving as president of the professorial board, Fred Schonell was appointed the first full-time salaried vice-chancellor of the University of Queensland in 1960. One of his biggest challenges was to address the budgetary problems facing a university at which enrolments more than doubled between 1957 and 1963. He recognized the importance of an alumnae association, oversaw the process of moving the remaining departments from George Street to the St Lucia site and recommended the purchase of nearby houses to permit expansion of the campus. Appreciating that too many able secondary school students in Queensland were not proceeding to university, he advocated an increase in the proportion of females in the student body and proposed that a film be made about university education for screening in high schools around the State. He was a member (1961-65) of Sir Leslie Martin's committee on the future of tertiary education in Australia.
In Schonell's nine years as vice-chancellor the number of students at the university grew from 7000 to 15,000. His initiative led to the creation of a student counselling service. He wrote How to Study at the University (Brisbane, 1961), urged residential colleges to cease 'initiation' practices, and promoted new courses in Asian Studies, social work and speech therapy. By carrying out a six-year study of the experiences of students, Promise and Performance (Brisbane, c.1962), he drew attention at home and abroad to ways of improving tertiary education. He supported better teaching methods and training courses for university lecturers. Responding cautiously to the rise of student radicalism, he offered students the opportunity to participate in a liaison committee, while warning them against violence and treason.
Outside the university, Schonell worked in community groups (especially the Queensland Sub-Normal Children's Welfare Association) which struggled to secure educational and related services for intellectually impaired children and their families. A founding member (1954) of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust, he was a director of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and chairman (1966) of its Queensland and national selection committees. He was awarded an honorary D.Litt. (1963) by the University of Western Australia and an honorary LL.D. (1965) by the University of Sydney. In 1962 he was knighted. That year he received the Bancroft medal from the Australian Medical Association and the Alexander Mackie medal from the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science. An inaugural fellow (1960) of the Australian College of Education, he was an honorary fellow of both the Australian and British Psychological societies.
In spite of illness, Sir Fred carried on as vice-chancellor, with increasing assistance from his deputy Professor Hartley Teakle. Survived by his son and daughter, he died of Hodgkin's disease on 22 February 1969 at his Indooroopilly home and was cremated. Like his wife, he was remembered for his warm nature and his interest in people. The Fred and Eleanor Schonell Educational Research Centre at the university was named (1967) after them.
Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography.
11-Jan-2021: 1. Frivillig barnlöshet by Kristina Engwall & Helen Peterson (editors)
Fave! Swedish book about childfree people. :)
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26-Jan-2021: 2. A promised land by Barack Obama
Fave!
"My staff's biggest fear was that I'd make a 'gaffe,' the expression used by the press to describe any maladroit phrase by the candidate that reveals ignorance, carelessness, fuzzy thinking, insensitivity, malice, boorishness, falsehood, or hypocrisy – or is simply deemed to veer sufficiently far from conventional wisdom to make said candidate vulnerable to attack. By this definition, most humans will commit five to ten gaffes a day, each of us counting on the forbearance and goodwill of our family, coworkers, and friends to fill in the blanks, catch our drift, and generally assume the best rather than the worst in us."
"Hearing about what had happened to [Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.], I had found myself almost involuntarily conducting a quick inventory of my own experiences. The multiple occasions when I'd been asked for my student ID while walking to the library on Columbia's campus, something that never seemed to happen to my white classmates. The unmerited traffic stops while visiting certain 'nice' Chicago neighborhoods. Being followed around by department store security guards while doing my Christmas shopping. The sound of car locks clicking as I walked across a street, dressed in a suit and tie, in the middle of the day.
Moments like these were routine among Black friends, acquaintances, guys in the barbershop. If you were poor, or working-class, or lived in a rough neighborhood, or didn't properly signify being a respectable Negro, the stories were usually worse. For just about ever Black man in the country, and every woman who loved a Black man, and every parent of a Black boy, it was not a matter of paranoia or 'playing the race card' or disrespecting law enforcement to conclude that whatever else had happened that day in Cambridge, this much was almost certainly true: A wealthy, famous, five-foot-six, 140-pound, fifty-eight-year-old white Harvard professor who walked with a cane because of a childhood leg injury would not have been handcuffed and taken down to the station merely for being rude to a cop who'd forced him to produce some form of identification while standing on his own damn property."
"Around six in the morning on October 9, 2009, the White House operator jolted me from sleep to say that Robert Gibbs was on the line. Calls that early from my staff were rare, and my heart froze. Was it a terrorist attack? A natural disaster?
'You were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,' Gibbs said.
'What do you mean?'
'They just announced it a few minutes ago.'
'For what?'
Gibbs tactfully ignored the question. Favs would be waiting outside the Oval to work with me on whatever statement I wanted to make, he said. After I hung up, Michelle asked what the call was about.
'I'm getting the Nobel Peace Prize.'
'That's wonderful, honey,' she said, then rolled over to get a little more shut-eye.
An hour and a half later, Malia and Sasha stopped by the dining room as I was having breakfast. 'Great news, Daddy,' Malia said, hitching her backpack over her shoulders. 'You won the Nobel Prize . . . and it's Bo's birthday!'"
"Reading the transcript [from a Deepwater Horizon press conference] now, a decade later, I'm struck by how calm and cogent I sound. Maybe I'm surprised because the transcript doesn't register what I remember feeling at the time or come close to capturing what I really wanted to say before the assembled White House press corps:
That MMS wasn't fully equipped to do its job, in large part because for the past thirty years a big chunk of American voters had bought into the Republican idea that government was the problem and that business always knew better, and had elected leaders who made it their mission to gut environmental regulations, starve agency budgets, denigrate civil servants, and allow industrial polluters to do whatever the hell they wanted to do.
That the government didn't have better technology than BP did to quickly plug the hole because it would be expensive to have such technology on hand, and we Americans didn't like paying higher taxes – especially when it was to prepare for problems that hadn't happened yet.
That it was hard to take seriously any criticism from a character like Bobby Jindal, who'd done Big Oil's bidding throughout his career and would go on to support an oil industry lawsuit trying to get a federal court to lift our temporary drilling moratorium; and that if he and other Gulf-elected officials were truly concerned about the well-being of their constituents, they'd be urging their party to stop denying the effects of climate change, since it was precisely the people of the Gulf who were the most likely to lose their homes or jobs as a result of rising global temperatures.
And that the only way to truly guarantee that we didn't have another catastrophic oil spill in the future was to stop drilling entirely; but that wasn't going to happen because at the end of the day we Americans loved our cheap gas and big cars more than we cared about the environment, except when a complete disaster was staring us in the face; and in the absence of such a disaster, the media rarely covered efforts to shift America off fossil fuels or pass climate legislation, since actually educating the public on long-term energy policy would be boring and bad for ratings; and the one thing I could be certain of was that for all the outrage being expressed at the moment about wetlands and sea turtles and pelicans, what the majority of us were really interested in was having the problem go away, for me to clean up yet one more mess decades in the making with some quick and easy fix, so that we could all go back to our carbon-spewing, energy-wasting ways without having to feel guilty about it."
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8-May-2021: 3. Unweaving the rainbow by Richard Dawkins
Fave! And a re-read. Only my favourite book of all time, and Dawkins is my fave writer. :O
"Imagine a spaceship full of sleeping explorers, deep-frozen would-be colonists of some distant world. Perhaps the ship is on a forlorn mission to save the species before an unstoppable comet, like the one that killed the dinosaurs, hits the home planet. The voyagers go into the deep-freeze soberly reckoning the odds against their spaceship's ever chancing upon a planet friendly to life. If one in a million planets is suitable at best, and it takes centuries to travel from each star to the next, the spaceship is pathetically unlikely to find a tolerable, let alone safe, haven for its sleeping cargo.
But imagine that the ship's robot pilot turns out to be unthinkably lucky. After millions of years the ship does find a planet capable of sustaining life: a planet of equable temperature, bathed in warm starshine, refreshed by oxygen and water. The passengers, Rip van Winkles, wake stumbling into the light. After a million years of sleep, here is a whole new fertile globe, a lush planet of warm pastures, sparkling streams and waterfalls, a world bountiful with creatures, darting through alien green felicity. Our travellers walk entranced, stupefied, unable to believe their unaccustomed senses or their luck.
As I said, the story asks for too much luck; it would never happen. And yet, isn't that what has happened to each one of us? We have woken after hundreds of millions of years asleep, defying astronomical odds. Admittedly we didn't arrive by spaceship, we arrived by being born, and we didn't burst conscious into the world but accumulated awareness gradually through babyhood. The fact that we slowly apprehend our world, rather than suddenly discover it, should not subtract from its wonder.
Of course I am playing tricks with the idea of luck, putting the cart before the horse. It is no accident that our kind of life finds itself on a planet whose temperature, rainfall and everything else are exactly right. If the planet were suitable for another kind of life, it is that other kind of life that would have evolved here. But we as individuals are still hugely blessed. Privileged, and not just privileged to enjoy our planet. More, we are granted the opportunity to understand why our eyes are open, and why they see what they do, in the short time before they close for ever. /.../
After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with colour, bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn't it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it? This is how I answer when I am asked -- as I am surprisingly often -- why I bother to get up in the mornings. To put it the other way round, isn't it sad to go to your grave without ever wondering why you were born? Who, with such a thought, would not spring from bed, eager to resume discovering the world and rejoicing to be a part of it?"
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30-May-2021: 4. Do no harm: Stories of life, death, and brain surgery by Henry Marsh
Fave!
"Sometimes I discuss with my neurosurgical colleagues what we would do if we – as neurosurgeons and without any illusions about how little treatment achieves – were diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour. I usually say that I hope that I would commit suicide but you never know for certain what you will decide until it happens."
"'He might recover.'
'Oh come off it! With both his frontal lobes smashed up like that? He hasn't got a hope in hell. If we operate to deal with the bleeding he might just survive but he'll be left hopelessly disabled, without language and probably with horrible personality change as well. If we don't operate he'll die quickly and peacefully.'
'Well, the family will want something done. It's their choice,' she replied.
I told her that what the family wanted would be entirely determined by what she said to them. If she said 'we can operate and remove the damaged brain and he may just survive' they were bound to say that we should operate. If, instead, she said 'If we operate there is no realistic chance of his getting back to an independent life. He will be left profoundly disabled. Would he want to survive like that?' the family would probably give an entirely different answer. What she was really asking them with the first question was 'Do you love him enough to look after him when he is disabled?' and by saying this she was not giving them any choice. In cases like this we often end up operating because it's easier than being honest and it means that we can avoid a painful conversation. You might think the operation has been a success because the patient leaves the hospital alive but if you saw them years later – as I often do – you would realize that the result of the operation was a human disaster."
"With slowly progressing cancers it can be very difficult to know when to stop. The patients and their families become unrealistic and start to think that they can go on being treated forever, that the end will never come, that death can be forever postponed. They cling to life. I told the meeting about a similar problem some years ago of a three-year-old child, an only child from IVF treatment. I had operated for a malignant ependymoma and he was fine, and had radiotherapy afterwards. When it recurred – which ependymomas always do – two years later, I operated again and it recurred again, deep in the brain, soon afterwards. I refused to operate another time – it seemed pointless. The conversation with his parents was terrible: they wouldn't accept what I said and they found a neurosurgeon elsewhere who operated three times over the next year and the boy still died. His parents then tried to sue me for negligence. It was one of the reasons I stopped doing paediatrics. Love, I reminded my trainees, can be very selfish."
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5-Jun-2021: 5. We are the weather: Saving the planet begins at breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer
Fave!
"We cannot keep the kinds of meals we have known and also keep the planet we have known. We must either let some eating habits go or let the planet go. It is that straightforward, that fraught."
"It is true that a healthy traditional diet is more expensive than an unhealthy one – about $550 more expensive over the course of a year. And everyone should, as a right, have access to affordable, healthy food. But a healthy vegetarian diet is, on average, about $750 less expensive per year than a healthy meat-based diet. (For perspective, the median income of a full-time American worker is $31,099.) In other words, it is about $200 cheaper per year to eat a healthy vegetarian diet than an unhealthy traditional diet. Not to mention the money saved by preventing diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and cancer – all associated with the consumption of animal products. So, no, it is not elitist to suggest that a cheaper, healthier, more environmentally sustainable diet is better. But what does strike me as elitist? When someone uses the existence of people without access to healthy food as an excuse not to change, rather than as a motivation to help those people."
"And we have to acknowledge that change is inevitable. We can choose to make changes, or we can be subject to other changes – mass migration, disease, armed conflict, a greatly diminished quality of life – but there is no future without change. The luxury of choosing which changes we prefer has an expiration date."
"We view the actions of civilians during World War II from the vantage of having won the war. Winning required the ravaging of lives, landscapes, and cultures. Perhaps we look back at those blacked-out houses with admiration, but more likely, we look back and think, It was the least they could do.
What if those who came before us had refused to make home-front efforts, and we had lost the war? What if the costs were not extreme, but total? Not eighty million, but two hundred million or more? Not the occupation of Europe, but the domination of the world? Not a Holocaust, but an extinction? If we existed at all, we would look back at a collective unwillingness to sacrifice as an atrocity commensurate with the war itself."
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20-Jun-2021: 6. Outgrowing God: A beginner's guide by Richard Dawkins
Fave!
"We tend to think the United States is an advanced, well-educated country. And so it is, in part. Yet it is an astonishing fact that nearly half the people in that great country believe literally in the story of Adam and Eve. Luckily the other half is there too, and they have made the United States the greatest scientific power in the history of the world. You have to wonder how much further ahead they would be if they weren't held back by the scientifically ignorant half who believe every word of the Bible is literally true."
"What do you think of people who threaten children with eternal fire after they are dead? In this book I don't normally give my own answers to such questions. But I can't help making an exception here. I'd say those people are lucky there is no such place as hell, because I can't think of anybody who more richly deserves to go there."
"If God made the cheetah, he evidently put a lot of effort into designing a superb killer: fast, fierce, keen-eyed, with sharp claws and teeth, and with a brain dedicated to ruthlessly killing gazelles. But the same God put an equal amount of effort into making the gazelle. At the same time as he designed the cheetah to kill gazelles, he was busy designing the gazelle to be expert at escaping from cheetahs. He made both fast, so each could thwart the speed of the other. You can't help wondering, whose side is God on? He seems to be piling on the agony for both. Does he enjoy the spectator sport? Wouldn't it be horrible to think that God enjoys watching a terrified gazelle running for its life, then being knocked over and throttled by a cheetah gripping its throat so tightly that it can't breathe? Or that he likes watching a cheetah that fails to kill starve slowly to death, along with its pathetically whimpering cubs?"
"In 2014, a teenager was caught on camera urinating into a reservoir in America. The local water authority therefore took the decision to drain the reservoir and clean it at an estimated cost of $36,000. The volume of water drained was about 140 million litres. The volume of urine was perhaps about a tenth of a litre. So the ratio of urine to water in the reservoir was less than one part in a billion. There were dead birds and debris in the reservoir, and presumably plenty of animals had urinated into it without anyone noticing. But such was the 'yuck' reaction many people felt, the fact that a single human was known to have peed in the reservoir was enough to get it drained and cleaned. Is that sensible? What would you have done if you were in charge of the reservoir?
Every time you drink a glass of water, there's a high chance you'll drink at least one molecule that passed through the bladder of Julius Caesar."
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17-Jul-2021: 7. White Fang by Jack London
"To man has been given the grief, often, of seeing his gods overthrown and his altars crumbling; but to the wolf and the wild dog that have come in to crouch at man's feet, this grief has never come. Unlike man, whose gods are of the unseen and the overguessed, vapors and mists of fancy eluding the garmenture of reality, wandering wraiths of desired goodness and power, intangible outcroppings of self into the realm of spirit – unlike man, the wolf and the wild dog that have come into their fire find the gods in the living flesh, solid to the touch, occupying earth-space and requiring time for the accomplishment of their ends and their existence. No effort of faith is necessary to believe in such a god; no effort of will can possibly induce disbelief in such a god. There is no getting away from it. There it stands, on its two hindlegs, club in hand, immensely potential, passionate and wrathful and loving, god and mystery and power all wrapped up and around by flesh that bleeds when it is torn and that is good to eat like any flesh."
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23-Jul-2021: 8. What happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Fave!
"In short, I thought I'd be a damn good President.
Still, I never stopped getting asked, 'Why do you want to be President? Why? But, really – why?' The implication was that there must be something else going on, some dark ambition and craving for power. Nobody psychoanalyzed Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, or Bernie Sanders about why they ran. It was just accepted as normal. But for me, it was regarded as inevitable – people assumed I'd run no matter what – yet somehow abnormal, demanding a profound explanation."
"For years, GOP leaders had stoked the public's fears and disappointments. They were willing to sabotage the government in order to block President Obama's agenda. For them, dysfunction wasn't a bug, it was a feature. They knew that the worse Washington looked, the more voters would reject the idea that government could ever be an effective force for progress. They could stop most good things from happening and then be rewarded because nothing good was happening. When something good did happen, such as expanding health care, they would focus on tearing it down, rather than making it better. With many of their voters getting their news from partisan sources, they had found a way to be consistently rewarded for creating the gridlock voters say they hate."
"In my experience, the balancing act women in politics have to master is challenging at every level, but it gets worse the higher you rise. If we're too tough, we're unlikable. If we're too soft, we're not cut out for the big leagues. If we work too hard, we're neglecting our families. If we put family first, we're not serious about the work. If we have a career but no children, there's something wrong with us, and vice versa. If we want to compete for a higher office, we're too ambitious. Can't we just be happy with what we have? Can't we leave the higher rungs on the ladder for men?
Think how often you've heard these words used about women who lead: angry, strident, feisty, difficult, irritable, bossy, brassy, emotional, abrasive, high-maintenance, ambitious (a word that I think of as neutral, even admirable, but clearly isn't for a lot of people)."
"Of the sixty-eight women who signed the Declaration of Sentiments in 1848, only one lived to see the Nineteenth Amendment ratified. Her name was Charlotte Woodward, and she thanked God for the progress she had witnessed in her lifetime.
In 1848, Charlotte was a nineteen-year-old glove maker living in the small town of Waterloo, New York. She would sit and sew for hours every day, working for meager wages with no hope of ever getting an education or owning property. Charlotte knew that if she married, she, any children she might have, and all her wordly possessions would belong to her husband. She would never be a full and equal citizen, never vote, certainly never run for office. One hot summer day, Charlotte heard about a women's rights conference in a nearby town. She ran from house to house, sharing the news. Some of her friends were as excited as she was. Others were amused or dismissive. A few agreed to go with her to see it for themselves. They left early on the morning of July 19 in a wagon drawn by farm horses. At first, the road was empty, and they wondered if no one else was coming. At the next crossroads, there were wagons and carriages, and then more appeared, all headed to Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls. Charlotte and her friends joined the procession, heading toward a future they could only dream of.
Charlotte Woodward was more than ninety years old when she finally gained the right to vote, but she got there. My mother had just been born and lived long enough to vote for her daughter to be President.
I plan to live long enough to see a woman win."
"As Stephen Colbert once joked, 'reality has a well-known liberal bias.'"
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11-Sep-2021: 9. The hipster handbook by Robert Lanham
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19-Sep-2021: 10. Mannen som ordnade naturen: En biografi över Carl von Linné by Gunnar Broberg
Swedish bio of Carl Linnaeus.
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31-Oct-2021: 11. Until the end of time: Mind, matter, and our search for meaning in an evolving universe by Brian Greene
Fave! Brian is my 4th fave writer, the most pedagogical person in the world, and THE GREATEST MINDFUCKER I have ever read. :'D
"… A star that's twenty times the mass of the sun will spend its first eight million years fusing hydrogen into helium, then devote its next million years to fusing helium into carbon and oxygen. From there, with its core temperature getting ever higher, the conveyor belt continually revs up: it takes about a thousand years for the star to burn its storehouse of carbon, fusing it into sodium and neon; over the next six months, further fusion produces magnesium; within a month more sulfur and silicon; and then in a mere ten days fusion burns the remaining atoms, producing iron."
"The functions that keep a typical cell alive for just a single second require the energy stored in about ten million ATP molecules. Your body contains tens of trillions of cells, which means that every second you consume on the order of one hundred million trillion (10^20) ATP molecules."
"I have encountered many people /.../ who feel that any attempt to subsume consciousness within the physical description of the world belittles our most precious quality. People who suggest that the physicalist program is the hamfisted approach of scientists blinded by materialism and unaware of the true wonders of conscious experience. Of course, no one knows how all this will play out. Perhaps a hundred or a thousand years from now the physicalist program will look naïve. I doubt it. But in acknowledging this possibility, it is also important to counter the presumption that by delineating a physical basis for consciousness we devalue it. That the mind can do all it does is extraordinary. That the mind may accomplish all it does with nothing more than the kinds of ingredients and types of forces holding together my coffee cup makes it more extraordinary still. Consciousness would be demystified without being diminished."
"Let's focus on earth and imagine that another star wanders by. Depending on the interloper's mass and trajectory, its gravitational pull may only mildly perturb earth's motion. A lightweight intruder that keeps a good distance won't wreak havoc. But the gravitational pull of a more massive star that passes closer could easily rip earth from its orbit, sending it hurtling across the solar system and heading into deep space. And what's true for earth is true for most other planets orbiting most other stars in most other galaxies. As we climb up the timeline, more and more planets will be flung into space by the disruptive gravitational pull of wayward stars. Indeed, although extremely unlikely, the earth could suffer this fate before the sun burns out.
Were this to happen, earth's ever-larger distance from the sun would cause its temperature to fall continually. Upper layers of the world's oceans would freeze, as would whatever else is left on the surface. Atmospheric gases, predominantly nitrogen and oxygen, would liquefy and drip from the skies. Could life survive? On earth's surface, that would be a tall order. But as we have seen, life thrives and indeed may have originated in dark thermal vents dotting the ocean floor. Sunlight can't penetrate anywhere near such depths, and so the vents will hardly be affected by the sun's absence. Instead, a substantial part of the energy powering the vents comes from diffuse but continual nuclear reactions. Earth's interior contains a storehouse of radioactive elements (mostly thorium, uranium, and potassium), and as these unstable atoms decay they emit a stream of energetic particles that heat the surroundings. So whether or not earth enjoys the warmth generated by nuclear fusion in the sun, it will continue to enjoy the warmth generated by nuclear fission in its interior. Were earth to be ejected from the solar system, it is possible that life on the ocean floor would carry on for billions of years as if nothing had happened."
Me in margin: :)
Me in margin: "DISASTER MOVIE!!!"
"… In forming a black hole, the larger the mass, the less that mass needs to be crushed. To build a black hole like the one in the center of the Milky Way, whose mass is about four million times that of the sun, you need matter whose density is about one hundred times that of lead, so you've still got some serious crushing ahead of you. To build one with mass one hundred million times that of the sun, the necessary density drops all the way to that of water. And to build one that's four billion times the mass of the sun, the density you need is on par with that of the air you're now breathing. Gather together four billion times the mass of the sun in air, and unlike the case with a grapefruit, or the earth, or the sun, to create a black hole you would not need to squeeze the air at all. Gravity acting on the air would form a black hole on its own."
And I was introduced to the concept of Boltzmann brains. o_O The biggest mindfuck in this book of mindfuckery.
"… We can estimate that there's a reasonable chance that a Boltzmann brain will form within [1 followed by 10^68 zeroes] years."
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21-Dec-2021: 12. Me by Elton John
Fave! The shit hit the fan when I watched "Rocketman" on June 14, and several songs in it made me go "Hmm, this sounds pretty nice. I should probably check out more of his music." I'd had a handful of Elton songs in my collection for decades (I first heard him on "The lion king" soundtrack), but now I really started to spend time with ALL THE ALBUMS. (Er, I'm almost done.) Normally, the high point of my week is… the Flickr upload… :B But the Flickr habit had kind of been broken over the summer, for reasons. So the new high point of each week was to sit the fuck down with a new (to me…) Elton album and a can o' energy drink and no distractions. Ahhh. And I've got THREE ELTON SHOWS booked for 2022 and 2023! But I half expect them to get postponed or cancelled. :'( I COULD have started listening to him properly in 1995 or some shit. -_-
"But there was something more to cocaine than the way it made me feel. Cocaine had a certain cachet about it. It was fashionable and exclusive. Doing it was like becoming a member of an elite little clique, that secretly indulged in something edgy, dangerous and illicit. Pathetically enough, that really appealed to me. I'd become successful and popular, but I never felt cool. Even back in Bluesology, I was the nerdy one, the one who didn't look like a pop star, who never quite carried off the hip clothes, who spent all his time in record shops while the rest of the band were out getting laid and taking drugs. And cocaine felt cool: the subtly coded conversations to work out who had some, or who wanted some - who was part of the clique and who wasn't - the secretive visits to the bathrooms of clubs and bars. Of course, that was all bullshit, too. I already was part of a club. Ever since my solo career had begun, I'd been shown nothing but kindness and love by other artists. From the minute I turned up in LA, musicians I adored and worshipped - people who'd once just been mythic names on album sleeves and record labels - had fallen over themselves to offer friendship and support. But when it finally arrived, my success had happened so fast that, despite the warm welcome, I couldn't help but still feel slightly out of place, as if I didn't quite belong."
"There was choreography, in which I was expected to take part, at least initially. Visibly stunned by my demonstration of the moves I'd honed on the dance floors of Crisco Disco and Studio 54, the choreographer Arlene Phillips went pale and suddenly scaled down my involvement in that side of things, until all I really had to do was click my fingers and walk along the seafront in time to the music. Perhaps she was afraid I was going to upstage the professionals, and the thing she later said about me being the worst dancer she'd ever worked with was a brilliant double-bluff, designed to spare their blushes."
PS. Fave Elton song: "Live like horses". :'D Never heard it before 2021. D:
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Vegan FAQ! :)
The Web Site the Meat Industry Doesn't Want You to See.
Please watch Earthlings.
For the first time in it's 110 year history the Collage of Radiographers have gone on strike to try to improve working conditions, recruitment and retention and to get a fair days pay, I am 100% behind the strike.
Having been a Radiographer for 30 years before retiring I have experienced all the issues discussed within this fabulous profession. Falling recruitment levels and retention in the profession being a major problem, especially when you consider a newly qualified Radiographer after studying in university for 3 to 4 years getting payed less than stacking shelves in a supermarket and after gaining a Superintendents position, in charge of imaging services for A/E and all unplanned admissions orthopaedics, mobiles, theatres, ITU, DSA, out-of-Hours services, in house training, CPD and lecturing and all the responsibilities this brings and getting paid the same as a Bank Clerk!
Radiographers are the eyes an ears of the NHS performing x-rays, ultrasounds, CT and MRi scans, Radioisotope imaging, Cardiac Angiography and other interventional work, working in the operating theatres and out on the wards with mobile imaging, breast and cancer screening, nights and unsociable hours and many many more responsibilities.
I remember being in charge of a three room A/E x-ray department, all trauma and unplanned admissions, daily fracture and orthopaedic clinics, paediatrics including emergency outreach and trauma all mobile and theatre cases with 4 to 5 Radiographers, all rooms full and lists morning and afternoon.
I clearly remember one month in the summer at St Mary's Paddington being in charge, working a long day, thats 08.00 to 20.00 and due to sickness, holidays and just not having an adequate staffing level going straight into a full night, then again due to sickness going into another full day, getting home at 23 00 to have a nights sleep until the first train back to London at 06.30 and having to do it all over again. Missing my daughters birthdays and never having Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Years off for 4 years, missing family holidays, working over 70 hours a week, nights and weekends and in my department having myself, one more full time staff member and the rest agency who did not know the equipment or the hospital! No wonder why getting people to join the profession is failing and radiographers are leaving in droves for far easier and better payed jobs.
ER was the program to watch with smooth George Clooney. "Cosmo" magazine did a series called the "Real ER" at the Royal London Whitechapel. Here are two pages from the run with me as the Senior Trauma Radiographer at the time running the trauma imaging service and the trauma calls when a patient came to us on the London Air Ambulance. I am in the bottom left hand corner positioning the x-ray head ready to do the trauma series on a RTC brought in by HEMS
The Mount Isa Underground Hospital, constructed during March/April 1942 in the grounds of the Mount Isa District Hospital, was built by off duty miners from Mount Isa Mines. The structure was designed by Dr Edward Joseph Ryan, Superintendent of the Mount Isa District Hospital. Construction work was supervised by Wally Onton, Underground Foreman at Mount Isa Mines.
The war in the Pacific reached the shores of Australia on the 19th February 1942. Darwin was bombed by aircraft operating from four aircraft carriers in the Timor Sea. Within days Timor fell to the Japanese, the Australian cruiser HMAS Perth sank during the Battle of the Java Sea, while Broome, Derby and Wyndham in Western Australia, and Port Moresby in New Guinea were all bombed by Japanese aircraft.
The threat to Mount Isa seemed very real because there appeared to be little military opposition left in the north of Australia after the devastation of Darwin and the West Australian towns. The Mount Isa Copper Mine was seen as a strategic resource of great value to the Japanese, being recognised as one of the world's major deposits of copper, lead, zinc and silver. It was believed that like the Japanese controlled tin fields and rubber plantations of Malaya, and the oil fields of Borneo, the Mount Isa Mine was probably a target for invasion forces and air attacks.
Reacting to the perceived threat, Dr Edward Ryan decided to take precautions to protect Mount Isa District Hospital from air raids. Dr Edward Ryan contacted Vic Mann, MIM Mine Superintendent, who offered the co-operation of the company and the services of Underground Foreman Wally Onton to supervise the project. The company supplied all the equipment for the work, which was done by Mount Isa miners who volunteered their time.
The drilling, blasting and mucking out was mostly done over a two-week period, with the fitting-out taking a few more weeks. The work was done during March/April 1942, during which approximately 100m of tunnel were excavated. Three parallel adits were driven into the hill face and then connected to a crosscut level to form a large underground shelter with an 'E' shaped plan. A vertical rise to the hillside above helped ventilation and was also equipped with a ladder to serve as an emergency exit. The excavation was timbered using the contemporary mining methods of the day, then equipped with furnishings and fittings to perform all the functions of a hospital. There were male, female, and maternity/children's wards, a surgical theatre and a delivery room.
The finished underground hospital was about 100m from the rear of the nearest hospital building, with access along a gravelled pathway. The three entrances were secured by locked timber gates. Inside the hospital was framed either with sets of round native timber or sawn Oregon timber, the ceiling was sawn hardwood planks and some of the walls were lined with gidyea logs. The floor was bare earth. The hospital was equipped with electric lights and a telephone. Furthermore, buckets of water and sand, stirrup pumps and shovels were present in case of an air raid.
Dr Ryan kept the shelter fully equipped and ready for use with linen, medical equipment, dressings and pharmaceutical stocks. Once a week there was an air raid drill, and nurses and orderlies wheeled less-seriously ill patients up the steep gravel path to the underground hospital.
Mount Isa never experienced air raids, and it soon became apparent that the attacks on Darwin and other northern towns were harassing raids rather than the prelude to an invasion. History shows that Japanese resources were extended to their limit and, after the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway, their naval power was destroyed. The threat of invasion disappeared as the Japanese forces were driven from New Guinea and into retreat from the Pacific.
Although air raid drills ceased, the underground hospital remained in use for less urgent purposes. The shelter was used as a dormitory by the nurses on hot nights, then like most unused spaces, it gradually became a store room of hospital equipment and files. After the war, lax security allowed young children to play in the tunnels, which still contained medical equipment and pharmaceutical supplies.
The shelter was finally closed sometime during the 1960s when rubble, excavated during the construction of the new four-storey hospital wing, was used to close the three entrances. The ventilation rise was also filled in. For approximately ten years the underground hospital remained closed until the fill at the north collapsed in 1977, and at the main entrance in 1988. Each time an entrance opened there was debate in the community regarding the future of the site. In 1992 the main entrance again collapsed and there was considerable debate about the site because of the Australia-wide interest in WWII sites during celebrations which commemorated the Battle of the Coral Sea and the 1942 threat of invasion.
The entrance was again closed, but reopened in 1994. While the entrance was again open and its future was being discussed in the media, a fire broke out in the southern tunnel at 0130AM on the 27th of August 1994. Queensland Fire Services found water was ineffective and, not knowing the layout of the interior, or the source of the fire, they waited until daylight and filled the tunnel with high expansion foam to extinguish the fire. The Mines Rescue Unit and volunteers later removed most of the burnt timber and stacked it at the main entrance.
In response to the fire, the hospital administration installed a locked trapdoor of heavy steel mesh over the collapsed entrance, and the entrance has remained open but secure against entry for the past three years. A public meeting in late 1995 showed that community support has swung strongly in favour of conserving and developing the underground hospital rather than again burying the entrance.
In 1996 a Steering Committee, representing the owners, heritage conservation organisations and corporate and community representatives, was formed to manage the future of the underground hospital. A conservation strategy, funded under the Queensland Heritage Grants Program and the Queensland National Trust, was prepared at the request of the Steering Committee. Vandals lighted a second fire on Sunday the 26th of October 1997 causing further damage to the interior.
Plans are in place for the interior of the hospital to be cleared by Green Corps (Young People for the Environment) and volunteer labour. The work will be carried out in consultation with the Cultural Heritage Branch of the Environmental Protection Agency. All artefacts will be documented, tagged and stored at the North West Queensland Museum in Mount Isa. Re-timbering of the interior will be carried out under the supervision of Mount Isa Mines engineers who will also provide some of the equipment required for the project.
Seating for educational tours and fresh timber framing was added in 2021 to support the structural integrity of the underground hospital.
Source: Queensland Heritage Register.
This is another shot with my sigma 10-20mm. This shot is taken for neonatal hospital in sabah hospital area , i hope you like it :)
Highest Position - Explore #257
The Mount Isa Underground Hospital, constructed during March/April 1942 in the grounds of the Mount Isa District Hospital, was built by off duty miners from Mount Isa Mines. The structure was designed by Dr Edward Joseph Ryan, Superintendent of the Mount Isa District Hospital. Construction work was supervised by Wally Onton, Underground Foreman at Mount Isa Mines.
The war in the Pacific reached the shores of Australia on the 19th February 1942. Darwin was bombed by aircraft operating from four aircraft carriers in the Timor Sea. Within days Timor fell to the Japanese, the Australian cruiser HMAS Perth sank during the Battle of the Java Sea, while Broome, Derby and Wyndham in Western Australia, and Port Moresby in New Guinea were all bombed by Japanese aircraft.
The threat to Mount Isa seemed very real because there appeared to be little military opposition left in the north of Australia after the devastation of Darwin and the West Australian towns. The Mount Isa Copper Mine was seen as a strategic resource of great value to the Japanese, being recognised as one of the world's major deposits of copper, lead, zinc and silver. It was believed that like the Japanese controlled tin fields and rubber plantations of Malaya, and the oil fields of Borneo, the Mount Isa Mine was probably a target for invasion forces and air attacks.
Reacting to the perceived threat, Dr Edward Ryan decided to take precautions to protect Mount Isa District Hospital from air raids. Dr Edward Ryan contacted Vic Mann, MIM Mine Superintendent, who offered the co-operation of the company and the services of Underground Foreman Wally Onton to supervise the project. The company supplied all the equipment for the work, which was done by Mount Isa miners who volunteered their time.
The drilling, blasting and mucking out was mostly done over a two-week period, with the fitting-out taking a few more weeks. The work was done during March/April 1942, during which approximately 100m of tunnel were excavated. Three parallel adits were driven into the hill face and then connected to a crosscut level to form a large underground shelter with an 'E' shaped plan. A vertical rise to the hillside above helped ventilation and was also equipped with a ladder to serve as an emergency exit. The excavation was timbered using the contemporary mining methods of the day, then equipped with furnishings and fittings to perform all the functions of a hospital. There were male, female, and maternity/children's wards, a surgical theatre and a delivery room.
The finished underground hospital was about 100m from the rear of the nearest hospital building, with access along a gravelled pathway. The three entrances were secured by locked timber gates. Inside the hospital was framed either with sets of round native timber or sawn Oregon timber, the ceiling was sawn hardwood planks and some of the walls were lined with gidyea logs. The floor was bare earth. The hospital was equipped with electric lights and a telephone. Furthermore, buckets of water and sand, stirrup pumps and shovels were present in case of an air raid.
Dr Ryan kept the shelter fully equipped and ready for use with linen, medical equipment, dressings and pharmaceutical stocks. Once a week there was an air raid drill, and nurses and orderlies wheeled less-seriously ill patients up the steep gravel path to the underground hospital.
Mount Isa never experienced air raids, and it soon became apparent that the attacks on Darwin and other northern towns were harassing raids rather than the prelude to an invasion. History shows that Japanese resources were extended to their limit and, after the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway, their naval power was destroyed. The threat of invasion disappeared as the Japanese forces were driven from New Guinea and into retreat from the Pacific.
Although air raid drills ceased, the underground hospital remained in use for less urgent purposes. The shelter was used as a dormitory by the nurses on hot nights, then like most unused spaces, it gradually became a store room of hospital equipment and files. After the war, lax security allowed young children to play in the tunnels, which still contained medical equipment and pharmaceutical supplies.
The shelter was finally closed sometime during the 1960s when rubble, excavated during the construction of the new four-storey hospital wing, was used to close the three entrances. The ventilation rise was also filled in. For approximately ten years the underground hospital remained closed until the fill at the north collapsed in 1977, and at the main entrance in 1988. Each time an entrance opened there was debate in the community regarding the future of the site. In 1992 the main entrance again collapsed and there was considerable debate about the site because of the Australia-wide interest in WWII sites during celebrations which commemorated the Battle of the Coral Sea and the 1942 threat of invasion.
The entrance was again closed, but reopened in 1994. While the entrance was again open and its future was being discussed in the media, a fire broke out in the southern tunnel at 0130AM on the 27th of August 1994. Queensland Fire Services found water was ineffective and, not knowing the layout of the interior, or the source of the fire, they waited until daylight and filled the tunnel with high expansion foam to extinguish the fire. The Mines Rescue Unit and volunteers later removed most of the burnt timber and stacked it at the main entrance.
In response to the fire, the hospital administration installed a locked trapdoor of heavy steel mesh over the collapsed entrance, and the entrance has remained open but secure against entry for the past three years. A public meeting in late 1995 showed that community support has swung strongly in favour of conserving and developing the underground hospital rather than again burying the entrance.
In 1996 a Steering Committee, representing the owners, heritage conservation organisations and corporate and community representatives, was formed to manage the future of the underground hospital. A conservation strategy, funded under the Queensland Heritage Grants Program and the Queensland National Trust, was prepared at the request of the Steering Committee. Vandals lighted a second fire on Sunday the 26th of October 1997 causing further damage to the interior.
Plans are in place for the interior of the hospital to be cleared by Green Corps (Young People for the Environment) and volunteer labour. The work will be carried out in consultation with the Cultural Heritage Branch of the Environmental Protection Agency. All artefacts will be documented, tagged and stored at the North West Queensland Museum in Mount Isa. Re-timbering of the interior will be carried out under the supervision of Mount Isa Mines engineers who will also provide some of the equipment required for the project.
Seating for educational tours and fresh timber framing was added in 2021 to support the structural integrity of the underground hospital.
Source: Queensland Heritage Register.
The next stop on our Avalon Waterways Mekong River cruise was to Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia.
Our second stop was to the National Museum. Lots of display rooms and our tour included a guide explaining it all. I suffered museum overload so only a couple of shots.
While waiting for our cyclo to take us back to the Siem Reap at the port we wandered the museum grounds. This bronze of Dr. Beat Richner, a Swiss Paediatrician is outside the main building.
ABOUT DR. RICHNER:
Dr Beat “Beatocello” Richner, the founder of the Cambodian Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospitals, passed away at the age of 71 in his native Switzerland in September 2018 after a battle with a serious illness.
Richner received his medical degree in 1973 and specialised in paediatrics. He was sent to Cambodia in 1974 and 1975 by the Swiss Red Cross to work at the Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital.
In December 1991, Richner was asked by the Cambodian government to rebuild and manage the Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital, which had been destroyed during Cambodia’s civil war, a call he answered.
On September 22, 1992, the Kantha Bopha I hospital was inaugurated in Phnom Penh, with it fully operational on November 2.
Breastfeeding your new born: Give your baby the best start in life!
“Motherhood is a miracle that manifests and magnifies itself through the common languages of boundless love and selfless care" – Nita M. Ambani
Each newborn baby gives birth to a mother! While it is a divine experience in itself, it brings a mountain of responsibilities which only a mother can truly follow. To help your baby grow in front of you is a noble opportunity.
Mother’s milk is in fact the best start in life that a mother can give to her newborn baby. It contains the correct mix of all essential ingredients which your baby needs in order to grow well. It is entirely safe, free of cost, non-allergic, and will protect your baby against common infections and obesity.
Breastfeeding is a good habit for the mother too, as it helps her in shedding the extra weight, and protects her from diseases such as diabetes and certain cancers. Beyond these health benefits, it gives the mother an immense sense of satisfaction and nurtures a deep sense of bonding with her young one for a life time.
Having a correct idea about how to breast feed is absolutely important to avoid confusion and potential problems. It needs to be started soon after birth and should be continued exclusively as demanded by the baby till 6 months of age, following which should be complemented by semisolid feeds to support the increasing nutritional requirements of your baby.
Following a correct position, good latching-on technique, and a relaxed and unhurried approach is essential for ensuring adequacy of breast milk. A baby who is breast fed will grow well and has been shown to have superior intellectual abilities.
Even when mothers resume work, breastfeeding can be continued with the help of a supportive family. The mother can express her milk which can be safely stored and given to the baby on demand. Especially in places where good hygiene and safe drinking water cannot be assured to prepare safe formula feeds, breast milk goes a long way in avoiding infant mortality.
As the entire world has realized the enormous benefits related to breastfeeding, every mother needs to overcome any preconceived notions or prejudices, and accept it enthusiastically to maximize its benefits.
Come, let us all make a pledge to encourage and support breastfeeding and safe motherhood!
Visit our Paediatric Surgeons in Mumbai at Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre
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Care of Newborns : An Evidence Based Journey at Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre
Hosting a Pre-Conference Workshop on Neonatal Procedures. Registration/Inquiries: mail on Anjali.Kulkarni@rfhospital.org
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Neonatology Department at newborn care hospital Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre has the best Neonatologists who treat conditions affecting newborn children.
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At Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre, we are commemorating ‘World Breastfeeding Week’ (1st to 7th August, 2015). You are invited for a session on 'Breastfeeding and Safe Motherhood'
Visit our Best Paediatrics Cancer Doctors in Paediatric Hemato-Oncology Department at Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre
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The Mount Isa Underground Hospital, constructed during March/April 1942 in the grounds of the Mount Isa District Hospital, was built by off duty miners from Mount Isa Mines. The structure was designed by Dr Edward Joseph Ryan, Superintendent of the Mount Isa District Hospital. Construction work was supervised by Wally Onton, Underground Foreman at Mount Isa Mines.
The war in the Pacific reached the shores of Australia on the 19th February 1942. Darwin was bombed by aircraft operating from four aircraft carriers in the Timor Sea. Within days Timor fell to the Japanese, the Australian cruiser HMAS Perth sank during the Battle of the Java Sea, while Broome, Derby and Wyndham in Western Australia, and Port Moresby in New Guinea were all bombed by Japanese aircraft.
The threat to Mount Isa seemed very real because there appeared to be little military opposition left in the north of Australia after the devastation of Darwin and the West Australian towns. The Mount Isa Copper Mine was seen as a strategic resource of great value to the Japanese, being recognised as one of the world's major deposits of copper, lead, zinc and silver. It was believed that like the Japanese controlled tin fields and rubber plantations of Malaya, and the oil fields of Borneo, the Mount Isa Mine was probably a target for invasion forces and air attacks.
Reacting to the perceived threat, Dr Edward Ryan decided to take precautions to protect Mount Isa District Hospital from air raids. Dr Edward Ryan contacted Vic Mann, MIM Mine Superintendent, who offered the co-operation of the company and the services of Underground Foreman Wally Onton to supervise the project. The company supplied all the equipment for the work, which was done by Mount Isa miners who volunteered their time.
The drilling, blasting and mucking out was mostly done over a two-week period, with the fitting-out taking a few more weeks. The work was done during March/April 1942, during which approximately 100m of tunnel were excavated. Three parallel adits were driven into the hill face and then connected to a crosscut level to form a large underground shelter with an 'E' shaped plan. A vertical rise to the hillside above helped ventilation and was also equipped with a ladder to serve as an emergency exit. The excavation was timbered using the contemporary mining methods of the day, then equipped with furnishings and fittings to perform all the functions of a hospital. There were male, female, and maternity/children's wards, a surgical theatre and a delivery room.
The finished underground hospital was about 100m from the rear of the nearest hospital building, with access along a gravelled pathway. The three entrances were secured by locked timber gates. Inside the hospital was framed either with sets of round native timber or sawn Oregon timber, the ceiling was sawn hardwood planks and some of the walls were lined with gidyea logs. The floor was bare earth. The hospital was equipped with electric lights and a telephone. Furthermore, buckets of water and sand, stirrup pumps and shovels were present in case of an air raid.
Dr Ryan kept the shelter fully equipped and ready for use with linen, medical equipment, dressings and pharmaceutical stocks. Once a week there was an air raid drill, and nurses and orderlies wheeled less-seriously ill patients up the steep gravel path to the underground hospital.
Mount Isa never experienced air raids, and it soon became apparent that the attacks on Darwin and other northern towns were harassing raids rather than the prelude to an invasion. History shows that Japanese resources were extended to their limit and, after the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway, their naval power was destroyed. The threat of invasion disappeared as the Japanese forces were driven from New Guinea and into retreat from the Pacific.
Although air raid drills ceased, the underground hospital remained in use for less urgent purposes. The shelter was used as a dormitory by the nurses on hot nights, then like most unused spaces, it gradually became a store room of hospital equipment and files. After the war, lax security allowed young children to play in the tunnels, which still contained medical equipment and pharmaceutical supplies.
The shelter was finally closed sometime during the 1960s when rubble, excavated during the construction of the new four-storey hospital wing, was used to close the three entrances. The ventilation rise was also filled in. For approximately ten years the underground hospital remained closed until the fill at the north collapsed in 1977, and at the main entrance in 1988. Each time an entrance opened there was debate in the community regarding the future of the site. In 1992 the main entrance again collapsed and there was considerable debate about the site because of the Australia-wide interest in WWII sites during celebrations which commemorated the Battle of the Coral Sea and the 1942 threat of invasion.
The entrance was again closed, but reopened in 1994. While the entrance was again open and its future was being discussed in the media, a fire broke out in the southern tunnel at 0130AM on the 27th of August 1994. Queensland Fire Services found water was ineffective and, not knowing the layout of the interior, or the source of the fire, they waited until daylight and filled the tunnel with high expansion foam to extinguish the fire. The Mines Rescue Unit and volunteers later removed most of the burnt timber and stacked it at the main entrance.
In response to the fire, the hospital administration installed a locked trapdoor of heavy steel mesh over the collapsed entrance, and the entrance has remained open but secure against entry for the past three years. A public meeting in late 1995 showed that community support has swung strongly in favour of conserving and developing the underground hospital rather than again burying the entrance.
In 1996 a Steering Committee, representing the owners, heritage conservation organisations and corporate and community representatives, was formed to manage the future of the underground hospital. A conservation strategy, funded under the Queensland Heritage Grants Program and the Queensland National Trust, was prepared at the request of the Steering Committee. Vandals lighted a second fire on Sunday the 26th of October 1997 causing further damage to the interior.
Plans are in place for the interior of the hospital to be cleared by Green Corps (Young People for the Environment) and volunteer labour. The work will be carried out in consultation with the Cultural Heritage Branch of the Environmental Protection Agency. All artefacts will be documented, tagged and stored at the North West Queensland Museum in Mount Isa. Re-timbering of the interior will be carried out under the supervision of Mount Isa Mines engineers who will also provide some of the equipment required for the project.
Seating for educational tours and fresh timber framing was added in 2021 to support the structural integrity of the underground hospital.
Source: Queensland Heritage Register.
The News Line: News Wednesday, 27 April 2016 Massive doctors picket lines –answer the Cameron-Hunt threats
Unison leader PRENTIS with delegates from the Unison Health Conference joined the picket line at the Brighton General Hospital yesterday
www.wrp.org.uk/images/photos/16-04-26-11992.jpg
THE TUC must organise a national day of action in support of the junior doctors’ dispute and our NHS, the Public and Commercial Services union said yesterday.
The union’s general secretary Mark Serwotka wrote to the TUC yesterday afternoon to ask that the proposal is discussed at this morning’s general council meeting. The general council is the TUC’s ruling body. Yesterday morning hundreds of Unison delegates joined a march from the Brighton conference centre to join junior doctors on their picket line at Brighton General Hospital. The march was called by Brighton and Hove trades council and Sussex Defend the NHS. Delegates from the Unison Health Conference joined with other trades unions and community groups on a lively picket line outside the hospital.
Dave Prentis, Unison General Secretary, spoke and brought greetings on behalf of Unison. Local BMA rep and junior doctor Todd Leckie addressed the rally. He said: ‘Jeremy Hunt does not care about us and he does not care about the NHS. This is why we are on strike today, we do this with a heavy heart. If we do not oppose this contract we will not be able to care for our patients in the future. ‘That is why thousands of us are on strike today.’
He went on to thank Unison for their support and said a special thanks to the consultants inside who were covering for them. Speaking from the 200-strong picket outside Kings College Hospital, London, Dr Jack Granville in Respiratory medicine said: ‘I’m here on the picket line at King’s College Hospital oppposing the damaging, unsafe and unfair contract that Jeremy Hunt is wishing to impose on junor doctors.
‘I also want to oppose the government’s austerity agenda, cuts and privatisation.
‘The NHS in its current form is already struggling. King’s A&E Department had its worst winter ever. There were many unsafe situations created. The hospital was struggling to discharge people, with no beds in which to admit people.
‘That is a result of the government’s decimation of the social care budget due to cuts to councils, and is the consequence of the government attitude to health and social care.
‘People are losing their lives. I would support co-ordinated strike action by other unions if they were willing to engage with us. This government is a disaster for this country.’
Dr David Herbert said: ‘I’m a junior doctor, two years working for the NHS and I have seen conditions get worse and worse, not just for doctors, but nurses, health care assistants, phlebotomists, absolutely everyone, and for patients. We are all working under extreme pressure at the moment and this contract will make a situation which is barely manageable untenable in the future, so I am here striking for better conditions.
‘We need to retain talent and staff in this country. We need to value the staff properly, keep them happy and working for the NHS. I think this government is being childish. How can we have an elected government supposedly working for the good of this country, but who are refusing to engage with the wider body of doctors who work on the front line and who know what it is like to be on a ward at 3.00am, doing their best for their patients. I don’t understand how our elected representatives can behave this way. It is beyond reproach really.’
Dr Patrick said: ‘It is really a shame that the other unions like Unison and Unite have been so tentative in their commitment. The sea of opinion might change even more when the public realise that this strike action today – with the full walkout – won’t be to the detriment of people’s health.
‘It will be impossible to undo privatisation. Utterly impossible. The Labour Party should be rallying the unions and rallying the public. The Tories are getting away with absolute murder and it is left down to us and the public to drive the momentum. We really need more help and we need to get other sections of workers involved.’
Dr Benedict said: ‘I can’t imagine a whole body of doctors around the country all signing up to mass resignation as the next step. I personally think an indefinite walkout is the way forward. We need an option that brings the country to a standstill and that has a big ongoing effect. If we have a strike for 48 hours the consultants can come on board, and work harder to keep it going. If we have an indefinite walkout then great things can be achieved, and the Conservative government might be forced back to the negotiating table.''
Dr Colin Coulter said: ‘I am increasingly convinced that privatisation of the NHS is the goal here. Even today at The Royal College of Physicians, there were about 25 CEOs from private healthcare providers meeting to discuss the future of our healthcare. The narrative of our struggle needs to go bigger, because this is something that is going to affect radiographers, porters and everyone in the NHS.’
A large picket of over 50 doctors manned the picket line outside St George’s Hospital in Tooting. David Thompson, a surgical trainee, said: ‘Two people could have stopped this strike, Cameron and Hunt, but they chose not to.’
Sophie Herbert, junior doctor in General Medicine, said: ‘Hunt has refused to talk to junior doctors in public which seems very suspect. We believe he wouldn’t have a leg to stand on when confronted with the truth. He has failed to listen to our concerns that the contract will harm patients and instead he is just repeating his government’s spin and propaganda.
‘The government is hell-bent on destroying the NHS, which will do very real harm to patients. Hunt should drop the imposition of the contract and return to negotiate to the caring professions.’
Seema Jain, junior doctor at St George’s, said: ‘Safety is not being compromised while the strike is on. We have tried everything else. The government says the strike is political. Well it is political because the government is imposing a contract that will harm patient care. We are being treated like children.’
At St Thomas’ Hospital Sian Ashby, GP trainee, said: ‘We are quite determined we don’t want to work under this new contract. It affects staffing numbers and gender discrimination. We are not being listened to by the government. We have the support of nurses, physiotherapists and all the other health professions.
‘The PFI and the Health and Care Act, all these are pushing the NHS into privatisation.
James Connor, a GP who came down to London from Banbury to join the picket said: ‘I am here to voice our general concerns that the NHS is being run into the ground in order to justify privatisation.
‘We have the best, most efficient and most equitable healthcare system in the world.
‘This TTIP agreement will badly affect the health service. The government is intent on attacking the poorest and most vulnerable in society. This government has picked a fight with so many people that opposition is growing.’
At Northwick Park Hospital, where 200 pickets turned out, Sarah Krrar said: ‘I have been nine years a junior doctor and was six years a medical student. I have seen the deterioration of the service we have provided over the last five years because of the cuts. Cuts have coincided with a massive increase in demand for the service.
‘Last year, 30% to 40% of patients that I looked after were in hospital for social rather than medical reasons. They came into hospital initially for medical reasons, and they can’t go home because the care is not there. The NHS needs resources. There are massive staff and bed shortages, the current staff have worked flat out to keep the service afloat. Jeremy Hunt coming along and alienating the work force is complete madness. To imply that we are the barrier to expanding services is offensive.''
Junior doctor Elvis Adams said: ‘Jeremy Hunt has to back down. I hope 50,000 striking junior doctors outweighs the will of one man.’
Dr Jenny Abthorpe said: ‘Over 70,000 operations are cancelled every year because of lack of funding or beds. They only quote how many operations hae been cancelled on the day of our strike. On Christmas Day and bank holidays, hospitals have the same cover as the previous junior doctors strike days, however no one complains.
‘We are fighting for the future. We know what will happen in future if this contract goes through. We are not asking for a single penny extra on pay. I work seven nights and two weekends every four weeks. I don’t want to work more weekends or night shifts. Doctors’ mental and physical health is worse than it has every been. What type of NHS and what type of doctors so we want in the future?’
Junior doctors Kate Felton (paediatrics) and Jacob Ellis (child psychology) spoke to News Line amidst an animated group with strong opinions. Jeremy Hunt says that we are a block to a seven-day working contract. If you really want elective options at weekends then you need nurses and other staff as well. Can we afford that? We already work seven days!
‘We have an overwhelming lack of confidence in Hunt. He has shown no insight into the way the NHS works and his attitude is insulting to our intelligence. He cannot even say what seven-day working means; it is not sorted and no-one knows. Our union has, on the other hand, been very clear: if you stop the imposition then we will negotiate.
‘He has rejected a very fair offer from our union. How do you even model a contract when you don’t even know how many doctors you have got? There is already a massive loss of talent as people come up for retirement, leaving massive holes in the service, all aggravated by this imposition, which will make new doctors leave.
‘It costs a great deal of public money to train a junior doctor! We are trying to get Hunt to listen to us. Other unions have supported us. Unison has offered support because of pressure on public services, and the teachers have marched with us because of the imposition of academies. We are the first profession specifically targeted by the government. If we fail, then the floodgates open for other sections to be targeted.’
‘It’s ridiculous to impose a contract that compromises patient safety and puts further strain on an already stretched NHS,’ BMA rep Raj Shah told News Line on a lively picket line outside the Royal Free Hospital, northwest London.
Junior doctor Sofia Haddart said: ‘It’s a sad day that it’s come to this. We’ve tried a long time to avert this day but the government has left us with no choice.’
Nurse Kat Booth joined the picket line. She said: ‘I fully support these guys. I feel if the government imposes these contracts on the junior doctors, then nurses and all ancillary hospital workers will end up having their pay cut, working more hours and less flexible working time.’
BMA member Miles Gandolfi said: ‘Our strike is a protest against a contract the government is trying to impose. It’s something my colleagues and myself feel strongly about for a number of reasons. It’s not going to be fair for the doctors who would end up working much longer hours. You’d end up losing your extra pay for weekends. The contract already recognises it is unfair to female doctors, which is pretty shocking.’
BMA member Alison Berner added: ‘What we are doing today is really important for patient safety. We want a contract that’s safe for patients and safe for doctors to work in. It’s very sad it’s come to this and hopefully today will show the government how important this is and they will reconsider and come back to the negotiating table.’
On a well attended picket line at Barnet hospital Dr Amy Bowes told News Line: ‘At present I work in medicine for the elderly in my first year of training and it was disappointing to start my career in such a position and to have a health minister so insistent on imposing an unfair contract.
‘Although today has been very unfair for all of us we feel we’ve been backed into a corner and have no choice but to fight.We’re pleased our consultants are supporting us and patients will continue to receive a high standard of care.’
Katie Knight, BMA member on big picket at North Middlesex Hospital, told News Line: ‘Hunt has been wilfully ignoring all our efforts to speak to him. He’s ignored a cross-party attempt to form a last minute resolution and it’s as if he’s goading us into taking this action – he’s backed us into a corner. I think we need some assistance from the TUC. We appreciated the support we had on the last March particularly.’
Whipps Cross Hospital BMA rep Niki Fitzgerald told News Line: ‘We think very carefully about taking strike action. In our job we fill out risk assessments everyday. We have done our work on the risk assessment for this strike and have come to the conclusion that the risk to our future patients is higher than the risk put to patients during this current strike.’
Junior doctors Anita Chan said: ‘We are fighting for the future of the NHS. That is the essence of the message we are putting across. As a whole the service needs more staff, more resources, more funding before we are spread any thinner. Teachers, ambulance workers and other public service workers are fighting for the same thing and we should come out together.’
Martin Goodsell brought the East London, Unite Community banner, he said: ‘We support the junior doctors 100%. We are community activists engaged in housing and anti-eviction campaigns and against zero-hours contract employers.
‘All these campaigns must come together. The teachers and doctors should come out on strike together. We need an all-out NHS strike. This is about the unions working together to resist rivatisation and co-ordinate actions and strikes.’ Len Weiss, chair of the Unison Waltham Forest retired members branch, said: ‘We are here to support the junior doctors on their picket line.
The fight for the NHS and to keep it fair and safe is too important to give up,’ said Hammersmith Hospital junior doctor Julia Prague on the picket line yesterday.
Julia added: ‘All we get from Hunt is the same rhetoric.’ Natasha Rinne, a maternity services junior doctor at Queen Charlotte’s Hospital in Hammersmith, told News Line: ‘I was hoping to wake up this morning to hear that the strike had been cancelled, but instead woke up to hear health secretary Hunt telling the nation that the junior doctors are bullies. But to have a contract that is not safe for workers and patients imposed upon us shows us that the only bully is him.’
At Charing Cross Hospital in Hammersmith junior doctors were joined on the picket line by a group of consultants. Andy Forester, an orthopaedic consultant, said: ‘This truly is everyone’s fight. If this contract is imposed then everyone else will be next, from nurses to cleaners and other staff.’
Striking Charing Cross junior doctor Neeraj Kalra told News Line: ‘Hunt’s failure to negotiate shows just what sort of minister he is – he has lost the trust of the workforce. It’s just a backdoor attempt at privatising the NHS. Consultants can cover for a few days but if we escalate the action they won’t be able to cope.’
Ann Sturdy, an acute medicine junior doctor said: ‘Since I became a junior doctor four years ago we’ve always been short of beds, short of equipment and short of staff.
‘We regularly work two people’s jobs because there are not enough of us and this contract will make that much worse. At the moment we’re struggling to manage a routine service over the weekends.’
At the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital junior doctor in oncology, Ramya Ramaswami said: ‘The voice of 54,000 junior doctors is not being heard by this government who want to impose ideas that suit only a few people.’
At Ealing Hospital the striking doctors set up their picket alongside the West London Council of Action’s daily picket which is fighting against the closure of the Charlie Chaplin children’s ward and all children’s A&E services on 30th June.
Striking BMA member Donna Arya said: ‘We feel strongly that future generations should not have to work in an unsafe NHS. I appreciate that other unions are with us and support our fight.’
A&E doctor and BMA member Veronica Jones spoke about imminent planned cuts at Ealing Hospital, saying: ‘I think not having a paediatric A&E is of real concern because children will be turning up and if it is an emergency then they will have to be transferred to Northwick Park, which will lead to unnecessary delays which could be very dangerous.
‘There’s a lady here from the NUT and she agrees that we are all in the same fight.’
NUT member Sally Hackney said: ‘I think the TUC should call a general strike. This government is privatising all the professions and it has to be stopped.’
Trainee barrister Adam Marley joined the picket, saying: ‘The Tories want to pick off different sections, it’s a typical tactic, divide and conquer. The junior doctors must be joined by the whole trade union movement, they can’t sack everyone in the whole country. I would love a general strike, everyone out together.’
BMA striker Charlotte Bryant said: ‘The new contract would put patients at risk. There’s an expectation that there will be a seven-day NHS without more resources. In fact the doctors are already working seven days. We’ve shown a lot of unity in this struggle and we will carry on until we succeed in preventing the imposition of this disgusting contract.’
AAPC 2017 - Advanced Anaesthesia and Pain Conclave
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Nil Fyodorovich Filatov (Russian: Нил Фёдорович Филатов, 2 June [O.S. 21 May] 1847, or 16 April [O.S. 4 April] 1847, – 8 February [O.S. 26 January] 1902) was a physician who is considered the founder of Russian paediatrics. His nephew Vladimir Filatov was a prominent ophthalmologist.
Having graduated from the Moscow University, he practised as a country doctor in his native region. In 1872-1874, Filatov took additional training in Vienna, Berlin, Heidelberg, and Prague. In 1876, he upheld a thesis on bronchitis and pneumonia, and obtained a doctor degree.
Nil Filatov is most famous for describing infectious mononucleosis (also known as Filatov's disease) in 1887 and Dukes' disease (sometimes referred as Dukes-Filatov disease) in 1885; he was also one of the first to observe Koplik's spots (1895). In cooperation with Georgy Gabrichevsky he introduced serumal treatment of diphtheria in 1894.
He created a number of handbooks on paediatrics, which were not only popular in Russia, but also translated into German, French, Italian, Czech and Hungarian. In 1892, Filatov established the Society of Paediatricians in Moscow.
The oldest children's hospitals in Moscow, based in St. Petersburg are named after him.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nil_Filatov
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Neonatology Department at Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre has the best Neonatologists who treat conditions affecting newborn children.
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Maybe I am being obtuse or not searching the net properly, but the current children's hospital in Newcastle dates the history of paediatrics in the area from about 1980 - this looks rather earlier! I think it closed in 1987 when services moved to the RVI in Newcastle.
Great technique in this image, and almost no-one moved, tricky when photographing children. From 1905-1910 I guess.
The Mount Isa Underground Hospital, constructed during March/April 1942 in the grounds of the Mount Isa District Hospital, was built by off duty miners from Mount Isa Mines. The structure was designed by Dr Edward Joseph Ryan, Superintendent of the Mount Isa District Hospital. Construction work was supervised by Wally Onton, Underground Foreman at Mount Isa Mines.
The war in the Pacific reached the shores of Australia on the 19th February 1942. Darwin was bombed by aircraft operating from four aircraft carriers in the Timor Sea. Within days Timor fell to the Japanese, the Australian cruiser HMAS Perth sank during the Battle of the Java Sea, while Broome, Derby and Wyndham in Western Australia, and Port Moresby in New Guinea were all bombed by Japanese aircraft.
The threat to Mount Isa seemed very real because there appeared to be little military opposition left in the north of Australia after the devastation of Darwin and the West Australian towns. The Mount Isa Copper Mine was seen as a strategic resource of great value to the Japanese, being recognised as one of the world's major deposits of copper, lead, zinc and silver. It was believed that like the Japanese controlled tin fields and rubber plantations of Malaya, and the oil fields of Borneo, the Mount Isa Mine was probably a target for invasion forces and air attacks.
Reacting to the perceived threat, Dr Edward Ryan decided to take precautions to protect Mount Isa District Hospital from air raids. Dr Edward Ryan contacted Vic Mann, MIM Mine Superintendent, who offered the co-operation of the company and the services of Underground Foreman Wally Onton to supervise the project. The company supplied all the equipment for the work, which was done by Mount Isa miners who volunteered their time.
The drilling, blasting and mucking out was mostly done over a two-week period, with the fitting-out taking a few more weeks. The work was done during March/April 1942, during which approximately 100m of tunnel were excavated. Three parallel adits were driven into the hill face and then connected to a crosscut level to form a large underground shelter with an 'E' shaped plan. A vertical rise to the hillside above helped ventilation and was also equipped with a ladder to serve as an emergency exit. The excavation was timbered using the contemporary mining methods of the day, then equipped with furnishings and fittings to perform all the functions of a hospital. There were male, female, and maternity/children's wards, a surgical theatre and a delivery room.
The finished underground hospital was about 100m from the rear of the nearest hospital building, with access along a gravelled pathway. The three entrances were secured by locked timber gates. Inside the hospital was framed either with sets of round native timber or sawn Oregon timber, the ceiling was sawn hardwood planks and some of the walls were lined with gidyea logs. The floor was bare earth. The hospital was equipped with electric lights and a telephone. Furthermore, buckets of water and sand, stirrup pumps and shovels were present in case of an air raid.
Dr Ryan kept the shelter fully equipped and ready for use with linen, medical equipment, dressings and pharmaceutical stocks. Once a week there was an air raid drill, and nurses and orderlies wheeled less-seriously ill patients up the steep gravel path to the underground hospital.
Mount Isa never experienced air raids, and it soon became apparent that the attacks on Darwin and other northern towns were harassing raids rather than the prelude to an invasion. History shows that Japanese resources were extended to their limit and, after the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway, their naval power was destroyed. The threat of invasion disappeared as the Japanese forces were driven from New Guinea and into retreat from the Pacific.
Although air raid drills ceased, the underground hospital remained in use for less urgent purposes. The shelter was used as a dormitory by the nurses on hot nights, then like most unused spaces, it gradually became a store room of hospital equipment and files. After the war, lax security allowed young children to play in the tunnels, which still contained medical equipment and pharmaceutical supplies.
The shelter was finally closed sometime during the 1960s when rubble, excavated during the construction of the new four-storey hospital wing, was used to close the three entrances. The ventilation rise was also filled in. For approximately ten years the underground hospital remained closed until the fill at the north collapsed in 1977, and at the main entrance in 1988. Each time an entrance opened there was debate in the community regarding the future of the site. In 1992 the main entrance again collapsed and there was considerable debate about the site because of the Australia-wide interest in WWII sites during celebrations which commemorated the Battle of the Coral Sea and the 1942 threat of invasion.
The entrance was again closed, but reopened in 1994. While the entrance was again open and its future was being discussed in the media, a fire broke out in the southern tunnel at 0130AM on the 27th of August 1994. Queensland Fire Services found water was ineffective and, not knowing the layout of the interior, or the source of the fire, they waited until daylight and filled the tunnel with high expansion foam to extinguish the fire. The Mines Rescue Unit and volunteers later removed most of the burnt timber and stacked it at the main entrance.
In response to the fire, the hospital administration installed a locked trapdoor of heavy steel mesh over the collapsed entrance, and the entrance has remained open but secure against entry for the past three years. A public meeting in late 1995 showed that community support has swung strongly in favour of conserving and developing the underground hospital rather than again burying the entrance.
In 1996 a Steering Committee, representing the owners, heritage conservation organisations and corporate and community representatives, was formed to manage the future of the underground hospital. A conservation strategy, funded under the Queensland Heritage Grants Program and the Queensland National Trust, was prepared at the request of the Steering Committee. Vandals lighted a second fire on Sunday the 26th of October 1997 causing further damage to the interior.
Plans are in place for the interior of the hospital to be cleared by Green Corps (Young People for the Environment) and volunteer labour. The work will be carried out in consultation with the Cultural Heritage Branch of the Environmental Protection Agency. All artefacts will be documented, tagged and stored at the North West Queensland Museum in Mount Isa. Re-timbering of the interior will be carried out under the supervision of Mount Isa Mines engineers who will also provide some of the equipment required for the project.
Seating for educational tours and fresh timber framing was added in 2021 to support the structural integrity of the underground hospital.
Source: Queensland Heritage Register.
I guess this sort of pic is pretty common on Flickr. I saw this red ceiling a few times.
Three exposure HDR shot.
Part of the Säuglings- und Kinderkrankenhaus Weissensee set
Screening day for paediatrics at National Center for Maternal and Child Health in Ulaanbaatar during the first week of the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital programme.
Teenager’s Bra Guide | What, How, and When to Wear a Teenager’s Bra?
We all have a lot of doubts regarding the teenager’s bras. When should one start wearing a bra? What are the benefits? What is the right age? What is the difference between a normal bra and a teenager’s bra? What type of bra one should wear in teens? What size to buy and from where?
Let us make your life a bit easier.
What is a Teenager’s Bra?
A bra that has a very soft and supportive fabric to give comfort and coverage to the growing breasts of girls. A teenager should normally go for a bra when her breasts need coverage to protect them from excessive motion and to keep them in shape.
What is the right age to wear a teenager’s bra?
There is no right or wrong age to start wearing a bra. The breasts generally start to develop around puberty. Some girls may reach puberty earlier than others so defining an age to start wearing a bra will be wrong.
Also, it depends on the body type and genetics.
The correct time to start wearing a bra is when you start developing breasts which are around 12 years on average.
Benefits of Wearing a Teenager’s Bra-
According to the American Academy of Paediatrics, it is common for young girls to feel embar-rassed and self-conscious when their breasts begin to develop. In that case, a teenager’s bra/ sports bra/ training bra comes into play.
1. They make you feel comfortable and supportive.
2. Avoid awkward glances, especially in crowded places.
3. Keeps your budding breasts in place and helps smooth movement without jiggles or bumps.
4. Keeps your breasts in shape.
5. Helps you adjust to wearing a bra- allows smooth transition.
How do select the size of a teenager’s bra?
It’s just like we select the size of a normal bra, we do the same with a teenager’s bra. To measure the correct size, we need to measure 2 sizes- band size and cup Size.
Step 1- Measure your band (Underbust Size)-
Measure your rib cage, just where the band of the bra should come. Make sure it is parallel to the floor all way around. Round up to the nearest even number of inches.
Add 4 to get your band size. For example, if your measurement is 27.6 which rounds off to 28, so 28+4=32. 32 is your band size.
Step 2- measure your cup (Overbust size) –
Take the measurements at the fullest point of your breasts, make sure it is parallel to the floor, and round up to the nearest even number of inches.
The difference between your Underbust and Overbust measurements determines your cup size. For example, your underbust measured 30” and your overbust measured 32”, there’s a difference of 2”, This means, you are a ‘B’ cup.
Similarly, you can check below for a complete chart for cup size-
Difference in measurements
Cup Size
0” = AA
1” = A
2” = B
3” = C
4” = D
Etc.
We hope now you have better clarity about teen bras. Just remember one thing- Comfort is the key! Go for a bra that offers you the best fit and prevents any negative effects on your growing figure!
The News Line: News Wednesday, 13 January 2016
MASSIVE JUNIOR DOCTORS ACTION! – shakes the Tories to their core
A 200-strong picket line at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow
www.wrp.org.uk/images/photos/16-01-12-11688.jpg
MASS picket lines packed with enthusiastic doctors and supporters were the rule in every part of the country yesterday on the first day of the junior doctors strike action against the Tories’ attempt to dictate their contracts.
Commenting on the strike Dr Johann Malawana, BMA Junior Doctors Committee chair, said: ‘With junior doctors attending more than 150 pickets and ‘meet the doctor’ events up and down England, today’s action sends a clear message to Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron. Junior doctors in their thousands have made it quite clear what they think of the government’s plans to impose contracts in which junior doctors have no confidence.
‘Today’s action – one that the BMA has long sought to avoid – is a result of a fundamental breakdown in trust with junior doctors, for which the government is directly responsible. This has only been made worse by yesterday’s last minute, inept and heavy-handed attempts to bully junior doctors, lawfully taking industrial action, back into work.’
He continued: ‘We want a contract that is safe for patients, fair for juniors and good for the NHS. This is not the view of a few – as the government would have the public believe, the unprecedented scale of today’s action by junior doctors clearly demonstrates this.’
Junior doctors were out picketing at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital from 8.00am. They got a very warm response from NHS staff and patients. James Rowsen, the BMA representative and a first year junior doctor, told News Line: ‘Over the winter period the government and the BMA via ACAS met up regularly, to try and discuss a contract that would be safe and fair for junior doctors for the time to come.
‘However, the negotiations and the discussions were not concluded in the way we had anticipated or intended for the BMA. There were still elements of the negotiations regarding the safeguarding of hours and continuation of training, and annual increments of pay and annual incomes throughout the career. There’s still a lot to be worked on by those parties.
‘I think today’s demonstration should show the fact that we are very serious about what we mean, and the government would be stupid not to back down. It almost feels like the junior doctors are a trial run. No junior doctor wants to strike. Today we really need to strike, to be out here showing how serious, how important it is to the country and to the NHS as a whole, all of our patients in the future, to ourselves and our careers, to show we actually care about what’s going to happen to us next.
‘Other trade unions have been overwhelmingly supportive. Today we have got support from Unison. I know that there are others on board. We are overwhelmingly pleased that there are trade unions in support of us, and we fully support them as well.’
Over 50 doctors rallied outside Lewisham Hospital yesterday in a lively picket on the first of three days of strike action. Drivers tooted their horns as they drove by in support. News Line spoke to junior doctor Matthew Izett who said: ‘We want a contract that provides safe care and where we’re not overworked.
‘The proposed changes are unsafe for patients, doctors and the NHS as a whole. The contract amounts to an attack on all public sector workers. He added: ‘It will be junior doctors today, nurses tomorrow, and then all public sector workers.’
Dr Josh Cuddihy told News Line: ‘The NHS is stretched as it is. It needs more funding and additional resources. The NHS runs on the goodwill of staff and we need to look after the staff. The government’s proposed changes are unsafe and unfair. It means more unsociable hours and it is very short sighted. We already work long shifts and these changes will make things more dangerous for everyone.’
Junior doctors were also out in force outside the Royal Free Hospital. BMA Junior Doctors Committee member Tom Irwin told News Line: ‘We’re here because the government forced us into this position. A ballot of our members showed 98% of us support the action today. The government are taking risks to save money.
‘That will make it harder to do a good job in the NHS. It will damage the public perception of the NHS and affect patient safety. If the new contract goes through it will have a far worse effect on patient safety than any industrial action.’
BMA member Tom Palmer said: ‘One of the main sticking points of the contract issue is they want to remove safeguards against us working long, unsafe hours. Obviously, tired doctors make mistakes. You wouldn’t get on a plane flown by a pilot whose employer made him work unsafe hours. Us working long hours is just as dangerous.
‘The government are not listening, so we have to fight on behalf of everyone. This is one step in privatising the NHS. We can’t afford to lose the NHS. Other unions should take action with the junior doctors. Nurses are very supportive but we need all the unions on board.’
John, an anaesthetist, said: ‘We all support the strike. Every one of us is a bit concerned about the future. This is about patient safety, it’s about defending safe working conditions.’
Another picket, BMA member Sophie Tang, said: ‘I’m out today to oppose the imposition of the contract. It’s trying to spread a thin workforce even thinner. It’s not safe for the patients and it’s not fair for the doctors working. We’ve had a lot of support from the nurses and allied health professionals who work alongside us. A lot of junior doctors think behind this is the government’s intention to privatise the NHS.’
RCN student nurse member Andy Roy said: ‘I’m a classic bursary student. I’m nearly 40 and without the bursary scheme there is no way I could become a nurse. We’re supporting the junior doctors because they stand by us and we stand by them.
‘As has been put, we all need to stand together. This is an attack on the NHS as a whole. The fact that the government is targeting doctors and student nurses is just the tip of the iceberg. They want to make the NHS fail so they can privatise it.’
Natasha, a striking junior doctor at UCLH in Euston Road, told News Line: ‘In 2005 Hunt wrote a book in which he said the Health Service should not be free and this is part of his plan to sell off the Health Service. I don’t trust the government and Hunt. I can’t remember the last time I saw him talk to a junior doctor – he chooses to talk over Twitter and other social media.
‘We stood with the nurses in their demonstration to keep grants on Saturday and we have written support from the FBU firefighters’ union. On 10 February our strike will be full withdrawal of labour but we hope it doesn’t come to that.’
On the picket line at Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield junior doctor Sam Meadows said: ‘This is a strike that had to come, we have been headed into a corner – but it is for the benefit of the NHS. The government’s proposals are not safe for patients and not fair to the doctors. The support of the public has been overwhelming. It’s very heart-warming and we really appreciate it. Negotiations will start again tomorrow hopefully. But if it comes to more action we are prepared and we are ready.’
Mr Alex Rossdeutsch, a junior neuro surgeon at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, said: ‘This proposed contract will cause many of my colleagues to leave the NHS. When that happens, the goverment will privatise the NHS and the public will have to pay for their health. I’m striking to prevent that, to prevent the government attacking the health service in the future.’
At Ealing Hospital, where junior doctors set up their picket alongside the West London Council of Action’s daily picket, workers spoke out in favour of an all-out general strike on the third junior doctors strike on February 10th. Bus driver and Unite member Sunny Patel said: ‘I support the junior doctors 100%. This government is taking liberties now in every way. A general strike to support them is what we need.’
Bus driver and Unite member Abdi Mohamed said: ‘I support everyone coming out on February 10th and I will fight for it at my garage. Everyone needs the National Health Service and the junior doctors are leading the fight to defend it.’
Striking junior doctor Sean Morris said: ‘Ealing Hospital must not close, or be downgraded, and maternity must be re-opened. There are three strike days and the duration and intensity will increase, the tube workers are taking strike action on our next strike date. This government is attacking public sector workers and everyone should take action to defend the Welfare State.’
Foodworker John Fernandez said: ‘My wife is a patient here, we need a general strike to win this fight.’ Striking doctor Alex Adams said: ‘The government are stretching the NHS and putting patients’ lives at risk, we must win this fight.’
Striking doctor Maira Hamed said: ‘Today’s action is not just for the junior doctors, it’s for the NHS as a whole and everyone should take action to defend it.’ Anna Martin, a GP who was coming in to provide emergency cover, stopped to drop off food at the picket line and said: ‘I’m so proud and with them 100%. This contract is incredibly unsafe and detrimental to patient care. I trained at Ealing Hospital and I feel particularly passionate about this hospital which is under threat. I support the call for a general strike on 10th February, it’s the only way to show we won’t accept what the government is doing.’
‘All anti-social hours payments are in jeopardy!’ Unison member Kirth Gerson, who works in Pathology, told News Line on the junior doctors picket of Homerton Hospital in Hackney, east London. Unison and the NUT came down to join the junior doctors’ mass picket and to support their strike.
‘I am out here to support the junior doctors because they will be coming for us next,’ Gerson continued: ‘This is Agenda for Change. They want to extend our normal working hours from 6am until 10pm Monday to Sunday! This is why Unison have come down to the picket today and this is why there must be joint strike action.
‘They were going to build a new Pathology Lab at Homerton using a company called Longcross Construction. The contract went belly-up and is now in administration, the project has been abandoned. Private Canadian company Sonic Health Care now owns doctors’ laboratories within the NHS. They do tests for us here at Homerton and at the Royal Free in Hampstead and the UCLH in Euston.
‘The company want to introduce co-payment for the laboratory tests which would mean the patient would have to part pay for their own blood tests! This is totally unacceptable, the NHS must be free, we pay for it through our taxes anyway. We have to drive these private companies out of the NHS.’
Oliver Corke, of the NUT, who came down from Clapton Girls School to support the junior doctors said: ‘We wholeheartedly support the working conditions which uphold patient safety. That is why we support the strike. Patients need to be looked after and doctors need to be looked after as well.’
At the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, there was a mass picket with well over 50 supporters, members of other unions and junior doctors. Junior doctor Fiona Hansell said: ‘The massive support that we have had today just goes to show that we have gauged the mood very well. It is not just the medical unions that have come down to support us, but the non-medical unions are here as well. We have started the fight and the public will join the fight and so we have started a whole movement.’
Junior doctor Jessica Gale added: ‘The NHS staff are used to working in a multi-disciplinary fashion. We are all one NHS so we will all stand up for each other in support of the NHS. There has been no other option but to take strike action so that is what we are doing.’
Dr Hannah Marshal, working in Paediatrics, agreed. ‘This has been an absolutely last resort’ she said. We have to be united. This contract which the government is trying to impose on us is unsafe, it is not in the interests of patients, doctors or the NHS. Currently, if we work more than our rostered hours we flag it up and the Trust is fined. With the new contract this safeguard is removed.’
Aimay Mirdin, who is to become a Consultant in May, said: ‘I have been a junior doctor for the last 15 years. Essentially, I have been doing weekends and I have been doing nights. Junior doctors are the backbone of the NHS and a sure way to lose junior doctors is to make them work longer hours and to work harder. The number of times I have been on my fourth nightshift and I am so tired. I have almost fallen asleep at the wheel on my way home.’
There was a lively picket of junior doctors at Barnet Hospital. Dr Matteo De Martino, the BMA rep, told News Line: ‘I have been an obstetrics and gynaecology trainee doctor for four years and will be for a total of at least nine years. None of us wants to be here, it’s not something we feel 100% comfortable about but we recognise we have to do it.
‘If this contract is enforced then the only choice is to leave medicine or leave the country. No matter how much we love our job it is unfeasible and unsafe to provide a safe five-day, let alone seven-day service with extended hours, a 30% pay cut and no hours safeguards. The first line of attack is to drive doctors away, next create a vacuum for nurses and midwives by removing bursaries.
‘As the NHS becomes understaffed and overwhelmed the only workable option presented will be privatisation. It would be wonderful to have the support of other unions and many have already shown this.’
Simon Roth, a Consultant Paediatrician from the Baby Unit, came to give his support to the picket line. He told News Line. ‘I support the junior doctors’ action. The contract the government is seeking to impose is obscure and cynical, in keeping with their approach to undermining the NHS.’
Junior doctors held a very lively picket at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital where passers-by queued to sign their petition of support. Junior doctor William Hall told News Line: ‘I never thought I would strike, I’ve just finished an 80-hour week, this is my day off but it is so important to be here.’ Another junior doctor, Laura McGowan, said: ‘We are being asked to compromise too much of patient safety with this imposed contract.''
''Patients are right behind us, everyone is stopping to sign our petition to show their support,’ said junior doctor Owen Dineen. ‘We also have a lot of junior doctors leafleting and meeting the public at South Kensington Tube station, he said.
Car horns beeped in support of the junior doctors picket line outside Charing Cross Hospital on Fulham Palace Road. Desire Craneburough came to support the picket line and told News Line: ‘Junior doctors have been caring for patients since the start of the NHS and they’re not striking for money but for improved patient care.
‘They are here for us 365 days a year, day in day out, now I’m giving them my support. The Tories are breaking up the NHS with privatisation and we have to stop them.’
Doctors and supporters marched down Denmark Hill 50-strong, on the first day of the three days of strikes planned by the BMA to prevent Jeremy Hunt from imposing a contract which would destroy their conditions of work and the NHS.
Chris James, BMA Junior Doctors’ Representative at King’s College Hospital, said: ‘I don’t think there is any reason why we can’t come out on top in this struggle really. It’s a just cause we are fighting for. We are fighting for the future of the NHS. We are fighting against contracts that are unfair, unsafe and are starting to erode our NHS, which is free care for all and which is the right thing to happen.
‘We have the support of the public. They are behind us. We have to win this struggle, there isn’t any other option. The nurses are next. They led a magnificent march on Saturday, which I was at. The nurses are feeling it and I think that is going to filter through to the rest of the NHS as well.’
Asked if he thought that the rest of the unions should come out in a general strike in support of the junior doctors, James said: ‘I think if that is what it takes, and that is where it is going then “Yes”.’ Dr Fiona Humphries said: ‘We don’t want to strike for striking’s sake, but this government has shown its true colours, and that is something that we can’t stand for.
‘If that’s the route we have to go down ultimately – to essentially safeguard our society for future generations – then absolutely! We are here to fight contracts that are not safe and not fair. The government has got it wrong and has lost the trust of NHS employees.
‘We are here to protect the future of the NHS, because these contracts undermine the future of the NHS. I really hope Hunt capitulates. It is really sad that it has come to this that we have had to leave our patients’ in the capable hands of our consultants and come out here on strike. It’s a really difficult time’.
Dr Tom Pollak, Research Lecturer at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell, which specialises in mental health, said: ‘I think this government has been showing a lot of disdain for the electorate, and the junior doctors contract is just one of the ways they have done that.’
Dr Roxanne Keynejad, also out on the picket line added: ‘We are all junior doctors employed by south London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. We are all trainee psychiatrists and we, as one profession, are striking on a mandate by the whole junior doctor community in England over the contract that is threatened to be imposed on us in August of this year which is unsafe and unfair for patients.’
Pickets were out at St George’s Hospital in Tooting where banners were brought by Wandsworth NUT and Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Council. Junior doctors went out to campaign at Tooting Broadway underground station where they received overwhelming support.
Dr Sophie Herbert told News Line: ‘We are here because the government has ignored what we have said in negotiations and are threatening to impose a dangerous contract on us. We are understaffed and overworked and are already at breaking point.
‘I want to be able to tell my grandchildren that I fought to save the NHS. Joanne Harris, Unite Branch Secretary at Putney Bus Garage, who was there in support, told News Line: ‘Doctors deserve every bit of support they can get. The way the government is threatening them is appalling. The government has created this problem but then blames people when they go on strike.’
At St Thomas Hospital, by Westminster Bridge, there were 200 people picketing. A delegation of Nursing and Midwife students were there from Kings College. Mary Brown, a nursing student, told News Line: ‘We are here because we support the junior doctors. They have been very supportive of us in our struggles and, as professionals, we all work together.’ Dan Langley, another student, said: ‘If the Tories can upset some of the most conservative workers in the country, hopefully it will inspire others to fight against Tory austerity.’
At Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow there were 200 junior doctors on the picket lines.
Dr Attia Rehman said: ‘This new contract is completely unfair. If I was to do an on-call shift, I would get unsocial hours pay, but now they are treating it as an ordinary day which will mean a huge pay cut.’
Alex Thomson, a Northwick Park consultant, came to join the picket line. ‘I am fully behind the junior doctors. We also have a problem with our contract and the offer is going to a vote of the consultants. The future of the NHS is at stake.’
At North Middlesex Hospial about 40 docors and supporters picketed, and local junior doctor Jason said: ‘This is the first strike in 40 years, and of course doctors come from all political parties, and 98% of tens of thousands of doctors voted for this action. The contract on offer is unfair for doctors because it is asking them to work more unsocial hours for less pay, and it’s unfair for patients and public because the safeguards that stop us working long hours are being eroded. With the support of the public we will win!’
The News Line: News Wednesday, 13 January 2016
MASSIVE JUNIOR DOCTORS ACTION! – shakes the Tories to their core
A 200-strong picket line at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow
www.wrp.org.uk/images/photos/16-01-12-11688.jpg
MASS picket lines packed with enthusiastic doctors and supporters were the rule in every part of the country yesterday on the first day of the junior doctors strike action against the Tories’ attempt to dictate their contracts.
Commenting on the strike Dr Johann Malawana, BMA Junior Doctors Committee chair, said: ‘With junior doctors attending more than 150 pickets and ‘meet the doctor’ events up and down England, today’s action sends a clear message to Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron. Junior doctors in their thousands have made it quite clear what they think of the government’s plans to impose contracts in which junior doctors have no confidence.
‘Today’s action – one that the BMA has long sought to avoid – is a result of a fundamental breakdown in trust with junior doctors, for which the government is directly responsible. This has only been made worse by yesterday’s last minute, inept and heavy-handed attempts to bully junior doctors, lawfully taking industrial action, back into work.’
He continued: ‘We want a contract that is safe for patients, fair for juniors and good for the NHS. This is not the view of a few – as the government would have the public believe, the unprecedented scale of today’s action by junior doctors clearly demonstrates this.’
Junior doctors were out picketing at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital from 8.00am. They got a very warm response from NHS staff and patients. James Rowsen, the BMA representative and a first year junior doctor, told News Line: ‘Over the winter period the government and the BMA via ACAS met up regularly, to try and discuss a contract that would be safe and fair for junior doctors for the time to come.
‘However, the negotiations and the discussions were not concluded in the way we had anticipated or intended for the BMA. There were still elements of the negotiations regarding the safeguarding of hours and continuation of training, and annual increments of pay and annual incomes throughout the career. There’s still a lot to be worked on by those parties.
‘I think today’s demonstration should show the fact that we are very serious about what we mean, and the government would be stupid not to back down. It almost feels like the junior doctors are a trial run. No junior doctor wants to strike. Today we really need to strike, to be out here showing how serious, how important it is to the country and to the NHS as a whole, all of our patients in the future, to ourselves and our careers, to show we actually care about what’s going to happen to us next.
‘Other trade unions have been overwhelmingly supportive. Today we have got support from Unison. I know that there are others on board. We are overwhelmingly pleased that there are trade unions in support of us, and we fully support them as well.’
Over 50 doctors rallied outside Lewisham Hospital yesterday in a lively picket on the first of three days of strike action. Drivers tooted their horns as they drove by in support. News Line spoke to junior doctor Matthew Izett who said: ‘We want a contract that provides safe care and where we’re not overworked.
‘The proposed changes are unsafe for patients, doctors and the NHS as a whole. The contract amounts to an attack on all public sector workers. He added: ‘It will be junior doctors today, nurses tomorrow, and then all public sector workers.’
Dr Josh Cuddihy told News Line: ‘The NHS is stretched as it is. It needs more funding and additional resources. The NHS runs on the goodwill of staff and we need to look after the staff. The government’s proposed changes are unsafe and unfair. It means more unsociable hours and it is very short sighted. We already work long shifts and these changes will make things more dangerous for everyone.’
Junior doctors were also out in force outside the Royal Free Hospital. BMA Junior Doctors Committee member Tom Irwin told News Line: ‘We’re here because the government forced us into this position. A ballot of our members showed 98% of us support the action today. The government are taking risks to save money.
‘That will make it harder to do a good job in the NHS. It will damage the public perception of the NHS and affect patient safety. If the new contract goes through it will have a far worse effect on patient safety than any industrial action.’
BMA member Tom Palmer said: ‘One of the main sticking points of the contract issue is they want to remove safeguards against us working long, unsafe hours. Obviously, tired doctors make mistakes. You wouldn’t get on a plane flown by a pilot whose employer made him work unsafe hours. Us working long hours is just as dangerous.
‘The government are not listening, so we have to fight on behalf of everyone. This is one step in privatising the NHS. We can’t afford to lose the NHS. Other unions should take action with the junior doctors. Nurses are very supportive but we need all the unions on board.’
John, an anaesthetist, said: ‘We all support the strike. Every one of us is a bit concerned about the future. This is about patient safety, it’s about defending safe working conditions.’
Another picket, BMA member Sophie Tang, said: ‘I’m out today to oppose the imposition of the contract. It’s trying to spread a thin workforce even thinner. It’s not safe for the patients and it’s not fair for the doctors working. We’ve had a lot of support from the nurses and allied health professionals who work alongside us. A lot of junior doctors think behind this is the government’s intention to privatise the NHS.’
RCN student nurse member Andy Roy said: ‘I’m a classic bursary student. I’m nearly 40 and without the bursary scheme there is no way I could become a nurse. We’re supporting the junior doctors because they stand by us and we stand by them.
‘As has been put, we all need to stand together. This is an attack on the NHS as a whole. The fact that the government is targeting doctors and student nurses is just the tip of the iceberg. They want to make the NHS fail so they can privatise it.’
Natasha, a striking junior doctor at UCLH in Euston Road, told News Line: ‘In 2005 Hunt wrote a book in which he said the Health Service should not be free and this is part of his plan to sell off the Health Service. I don’t trust the government and Hunt. I can’t remember the last time I saw him talk to a junior doctor – he chooses to talk over Twitter and other social media.
‘We stood with the nurses in their demonstration to keep grants on Saturday and we have written support from the FBU firefighters’ union. On 10 February our strike will be full withdrawal of labour but we hope it doesn’t come to that.’
On the picket line at Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield junior doctor Sam Meadows said: ‘This is a strike that had to come, we have been headed into a corner – but it is for the benefit of the NHS. The government’s proposals are not safe for patients and not fair to the doctors. The support of the public has been overwhelming. It’s very heart-warming and we really appreciate it. Negotiations will start again tomorrow hopefully. But if it comes to more action we are prepared and we are ready.’
Mr Alex Rossdeutsch, a junior neuro surgeon at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, said: ‘This proposed contract will cause many of my colleagues to leave the NHS. When that happens, the goverment will privatise the NHS and the public will have to pay for their health. I’m striking to prevent that, to prevent the government attacking the health service in the future.’
At Ealing Hospital, where junior doctors set up their picket alongside the West London Council of Action’s daily picket, workers spoke out in favour of an all-out general strike on the third junior doctors strike on February 10th. Bus driver and Unite member Sunny Patel said: ‘I support the junior doctors 100%. This government is taking liberties now in every way. A general strike to support them is what we need.’
Bus driver and Unite member Abdi Mohamed said: ‘I support everyone coming out on February 10th and I will fight for it at my garage. Everyone needs the National Health Service and the junior doctors are leading the fight to defend it.’
Striking junior doctor Sean Morris said: ‘Ealing Hospital must not close, or be downgraded, and maternity must be re-opened. There are three strike days and the duration and intensity will increase, the tube workers are taking strike action on our next strike date. This government is attacking public sector workers and everyone should take action to defend the Welfare State.’
Foodworker John Fernandez said: ‘My wife is a patient here, we need a general strike to win this fight.’ Striking doctor Alex Adams said: ‘The government are stretching the NHS and putting patients’ lives at risk, we must win this fight.’
Striking doctor Maira Hamed said: ‘Today’s action is not just for the junior doctors, it’s for the NHS as a whole and everyone should take action to defend it.’ Anna Martin, a GP who was coming in to provide emergency cover, stopped to drop off food at the picket line and said: ‘I’m so proud and with them 100%. This contract is incredibly unsafe and detrimental to patient care. I trained at Ealing Hospital and I feel particularly passionate about this hospital which is under threat. I support the call for a general strike on 10th February, it’s the only way to show we won’t accept what the government is doing.’
‘All anti-social hours payments are in jeopardy!’ Unison member Kirth Gerson, who works in Pathology, told News Line on the junior doctors picket of Homerton Hospital in Hackney, east London. Unison and the NUT came down to join the junior doctors’ mass picket and to support their strike.
‘I am out here to support the junior doctors because they will be coming for us next,’ Gerson continued: ‘This is Agenda for Change. They want to extend our normal working hours from 6am until 10pm Monday to Sunday! This is why Unison have come down to the picket today and this is why there must be joint strike action.
‘They were going to build a new Pathology Lab at Homerton using a company called Longcross Construction. The contract went belly-up and is now in administration, the project has been abandoned. Private Canadian company Sonic Health Care now owns doctors’ laboratories within the NHS. They do tests for us here at Homerton and at the Royal Free in Hampstead and the UCLH in Euston.
‘The company want to introduce co-payment for the laboratory tests which would mean the patient would have to part pay for their own blood tests! This is totally unacceptable, the NHS must be free, we pay for it through our taxes anyway. We have to drive these private companies out of the NHS.’
Oliver Corke, of the NUT, who came down from Clapton Girls School to support the junior doctors said: ‘We wholeheartedly support the working conditions which uphold patient safety. That is why we support the strike. Patients need to be looked after and doctors need to be looked after as well.’
At the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, there was a mass picket with well over 50 supporters, members of other unions and junior doctors. Junior doctor Fiona Hansell said: ‘The massive support that we have had today just goes to show that we have gauged the mood very well. It is not just the medical unions that have come down to support us, but the non-medical unions are here as well. We have started the fight and the public will join the fight and so we have started a whole movement.’
Junior doctor Jessica Gale added: ‘The NHS staff are used to working in a multi-disciplinary fashion. We are all one NHS so we will all stand up for each other in support of the NHS. There has been no other option but to take strike action so that is what we are doing.’
Dr Hannah Marshal, working in Paediatrics, agreed. ‘This has been an absolutely last resort’ she said. We have to be united. This contract which the government is trying to impose on us is unsafe, it is not in the interests of patients, doctors or the NHS. Currently, if we work more than our rostered hours we flag it up and the Trust is fined. With the new contract this safeguard is removed.’
Aimay Mirdin, who is to become a Consultant in May, said: ‘I have been a junior doctor for the last 15 years. Essentially, I have been doing weekends and I have been doing nights. Junior doctors are the backbone of the NHS and a sure way to lose junior doctors is to make them work longer hours and to work harder. The number of times I have been on my fourth nightshift and I am so tired. I have almost fallen asleep at the wheel on my way home.’
There was a lively picket of junior doctors at Barnet Hospital. Dr Matteo De Martino, the BMA rep, told News Line: ‘I have been an obstetrics and gynaecology trainee doctor for four years and will be for a total of at least nine years. None of us wants to be here, it’s not something we feel 100% comfortable about but we recognise we have to do it.
‘If this contract is enforced then the only choice is to leave medicine or leave the country. No matter how much we love our job it is unfeasible and unsafe to provide a safe five-day, let alone seven-day service with extended hours, a 30% pay cut and no hours safeguards. The first line of attack is to drive doctors away, next create a vacuum for nurses and midwives by removing bursaries.
‘As the NHS becomes understaffed and overwhelmed the only workable option presented will be privatisation. It would be wonderful to have the support of other unions and many have already shown this.’
Simon Roth, a Consultant Paediatrician from the Baby Unit, came to give his support to the picket line. He told News Line. ‘I support the junior doctors’ action. The contract the government is seeking to impose is obscure and cynical, in keeping with their approach to undermining the NHS.’
Junior doctors held a very lively picket at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital where passers-by queued to sign their petition of support. Junior doctor William Hall told News Line: ‘I never thought I would strike, I’ve just finished an 80-hour week, this is my day off but it is so important to be here.’ Another junior doctor, Laura McGowan, said: ‘We are being asked to compromise too much of patient safety with this imposed contract.''
''Patients are right behind us, everyone is stopping to sign our petition to show their support,’ said junior doctor Owen Dineen. ‘We also have a lot of junior doctors leafleting and meeting the public at South Kensington Tube station, he said.
Car horns beeped in support of the junior doctors picket line outside Charing Cross Hospital on Fulham Palace Road. Desire Craneburough came to support the picket line and told News Line: ‘Junior doctors have been caring for patients since the start of the NHS and they’re not striking for money but for improved patient care.
‘They are here for us 365 days a year, day in day out, now I’m giving them my support. The Tories are breaking up the NHS with privatisation and we have to stop them.’
Doctors and supporters marched down Denmark Hill 50-strong, on the first day of the three days of strikes planned by the BMA to prevent Jeremy Hunt from imposing a contract which would destroy their conditions of work and the NHS.
Chris James, BMA Junior Doctors’ Representative at King’s College Hospital, said: ‘I don’t think there is any reason why we can’t come out on top in this struggle really. It’s a just cause we are fighting for. We are fighting for the future of the NHS. We are fighting against contracts that are unfair, unsafe and are starting to erode our NHS, which is free care for all and which is the right thing to happen.
‘We have the support of the public. They are behind us. We have to win this struggle, there isn’t any other option. The nurses are next. They led a magnificent march on Saturday, which I was at. The nurses are feeling it and I think that is going to filter through to the rest of the NHS as well.’
Asked if he thought that the rest of the unions should come out in a general strike in support of the junior doctors, James said: ‘I think if that is what it takes, and that is where it is going then “Yes”.’ Dr Fiona Humphries said: ‘We don’t want to strike for striking’s sake, but this government has shown its true colours, and that is something that we can’t stand for.
‘If that’s the route we have to go down ultimately – to essentially safeguard our society for future generations – then absolutely! We are here to fight contracts that are not safe and not fair. The government has got it wrong and has lost the trust of NHS employees.
‘We are here to protect the future of the NHS, because these contracts undermine the future of the NHS. I really hope Hunt capitulates. It is really sad that it has come to this that we have had to leave our patients’ in the capable hands of our consultants and come out here on strike. It’s a really difficult time’.
Dr Tom Pollak, Research Lecturer at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell, which specialises in mental health, said: ‘I think this government has been showing a lot of disdain for the electorate, and the junior doctors contract is just one of the ways they have done that.’
Dr Roxanne Keynejad, also out on the picket line added: ‘We are all junior doctors employed by south London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. We are all trainee psychiatrists and we, as one profession, are striking on a mandate by the whole junior doctor community in England over the contract that is threatened to be imposed on us in August of this year which is unsafe and unfair for patients.’
Pickets were out at St George’s Hospital in Tooting where banners were brought by Wandsworth NUT and Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Council. Junior doctors went out to campaign at Tooting Broadway underground station where they received overwhelming support.
Dr Sophie Herbert told News Line: ‘We are here because the government has ignored what we have said in negotiations and are threatening to impose a dangerous contract on us. We are understaffed and overworked and are already at breaking point.
‘I want to be able to tell my grandchildren that I fought to save the NHS. Joanne Harris, Unite Branch Secretary at Putney Bus Garage, who was there in support, told News Line: ‘Doctors deserve every bit of support they can get. The way the government is threatening them is appalling. The government has created this problem but then blames people when they go on strike.’
At St Thomas Hospital, by Westminster Bridge, there were 200 people picketing. A delegation of Nursing and Midwife students were there from Kings College. Mary Brown, a nursing student, told News Line: ‘We are here because we support the junior doctors. They have been very supportive of us in our struggles and, as professionals, we all work together.’ Dan Langley, another student, said: ‘If the Tories can upset some of the most conservative workers in the country, hopefully it will inspire others to fight against Tory austerity.’
At Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow there were 200 junior doctors on the picket lines.
Dr Attia Rehman said: ‘This new contract is completely unfair. If I was to do an on-call shift, I would get unsocial hours pay, but now they are treating it as an ordinary day which will mean a huge pay cut.’
Alex Thomson, a Northwick Park consultant, came to join the picket line. ‘I am fully behind the junior doctors. We also have a problem with our contract and the offer is going to a vote of the consultants. The future of the NHS is at stake.’
At North Middlesex Hospial about 40 docors and supporters picketed, and local junior doctor Jason said: ‘This is the first strike in 40 years, and of course doctors come from all political parties, and 98% of tens of thousands of doctors voted for this action. The contract on offer is unfair for doctors because it is asking them to work more unsocial hours for less pay, and it’s unfair for patients and public because the safeguards that stop us working long hours are being eroded. With the support of the public we will win!’
For the first time in it's 110 year history the Collage of Radiographers have gone on strike to try to improve working conditions, recruitment and retention and to get a fair days pay, I am 100% behind the strike.
Having been a Radiographer for 30 years before retiring I have experienced all the issues discussed within this fabulous profession. Falling recruitment levels and retention in the profession being a major problem, especially when you consider a newly qualified Radiographer after studying in university for 3 to 4 years getting payed less than stacking shelves in a supermarket and after gaining a Superintendents position, in charge of imaging services for A/E and all unplanned admissions orthopaedics, mobiles, theatres, ITU, DSA, out-of-Hours services, in house training, CPD and lecturing and all the responsibilities this brings and getting paid the same as a Bank Clerk!
Radiographers are the eyes an ears of the NHS performing x-rays, ultrasounds, CT and MRi scans, Radioisotope imaging, Cardiac Angiography and other interventional work, working in the operating theatres and out on the wards with mobile imaging, breast and cancer screening, nights and unsociable hours and many many more responsibilities.
I remember being in charge of a three room A/E x-ray department, all trauma and unplanned admissions, daily fracture and orthopaedic clinics, paediatrics including emergency outreach and trauma all mobile and theatre cases with 4 to 5 Radiographers, all rooms full and lists morning and afternoon.
I clearly remember one month in the summer at St Mary's Paddington being in charge, working a long day, thats 08.00 to 20.00 and due to sickness, holidays and just not having an adequate staffing level going straight into a full night, then again due to sickness going into another full day, getting home at 23 00 to have a nights sleep until the first train back to London at 06.30 and having to do it all over again. Missing my daughters birthdays and never having Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Years off for 4 years, missing family holidays, working over 70 hours a week, nights and weekends and in my department having myself, one more full time staff member and the rest agency who did not know the equipment or the hospital! No wonder why getting people to join the profession is failing and radiographers are leaving in droves for far easier and better payed jobs.
ER was the program to watch with smooth George Clooney. "Cosmo" magazine did a series called the "Real ER" at the Royal London Whitechapel. Here are two pages from the run with me as the Senior Trauma Radiographer at the time running the trauma imaging service and the trauma calls when a patient came to us on the London Air Ambulance. I am in the middle left positioning the x-ray head for a "Shoot through T-Spine" on a patient brought in by by HEMS
The News Line: News Thursday, 7 April 2016
Junior doctors confident of victory!
Teachers from Sunny Hill school in Southwark joined striking junior doctors on the picket line at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell yesterday
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A GOOD picket of junior doctors turned out at the Norfolk and Norwich hospital at 8am. They were in good spirits despite the wind and the rain.
Mid-morning a band came along with accordion, guitar and lead singer to entertain them and encourage a singalong. Off-duty firemen also came to show their support. Clinical fellow Dr Gurung told News Line: ‘How can you get a seven-day service with funding for five days? It’s not only doctors they are cutting down, it’s everything – and yet the government is promising seven days.
‘We’re already stretched in the current situation with lack of staff. They want to get the contracts changed for consultants and all NHS staff. They don’t show the detail of how they’re going to do it and it needs more money. We must defend our NHS. We don’t want a privatised system like in America.’
Dr James Rowson, BMA rep, said: ‘We hear talk from the RCN about possible strike action because unsocial hours are threatened. We are still very angry about the imposition of a newly released contract which will see unsafer working hours, reduced rates of pay, and inequality. This may see doctors leaving their jobs for better climes, piling more pressure on an already pressurised service.
‘This attack is not a standalone attack on an individual section of the workforce. It is systematic undermining of the service, starting with the doctors and is only a matter of time before allied health professionals will be similarly attacked. They are paving the way for privatisation. We need to get everyone involved. Every union should get together and defend our NHS, one of the best things about this country.’
Outside Maudsley Psychiatric Hospital on Denmark Hill, Andrew Howe, junior doctor said: ‘We are here again, for the fourth time because the government will not listen to doctors. The whole medical profession is telling them “this contract will not work”. You cannot have a seven-day NHS like they want. It already is a seven-day NHS anyway, so what are they talking about?
‘The final straw is the equality of the contract which the government has openly said “it will discriminate against women”, and that that is OK. I thought we were living in 2016 not the 1950s, so what is going on? It disgusts me! So that is why we are here protesting and we will keep going until we win.’
NUT Rep for Lambeth, Michael Holland, supporting the junior doctors at Maudsley and Kings College Hospitals, said: ‘The junior doctors’ fight against privatisation is the same fight we are facing in education – the privatisation of our schools. I would agree with lobbying the TUC to get a general strike. The old slogan, TUC Get Off Your Knees and Call a General Strike, is apt.
‘They need to do it because people on the ground – teachers on the ground, junior doctors on the ground, library workers on the ground, people all over the country – are absolutely desperate to fight back. We are beginning to get a bit off Corbyn who has taken Cameron on about off-shore tax havens, but we need an industrial strategy, to bring all the fights together and, yeah, organise together and call a general strike.
‘All this stuff about tax havens, the Icelandic prime minister resigning and Cameron coming under pressure to declare his tax returns, shows up in black and white what we have always suspected – that the rich just fleece us – constantly – every single day!
‘So much poverty, suffering, war and racism, it is obscene. I went down to Calais and taught refugees there. Brilliant people of such strength and courage despite everything they have been through, and a week later, David Cameron calls them “a bunch of migrants”. They have more integrity in the mud on their boots, than he has in his entire cabinet.’
Strikers were in a determined mood at the Royal Free Hospital, northwest London, as hospital workers and patients stopped to ask for badges and stickers. BMA rep Tom Urwin told News Line: ‘People are resilient. The tide is turning. The government’s mask has slipped with the publication of the details of the new contract. This explicitly explains their plans to disadvantage women in the workplace. We’re not going away. All the health secretary has to do is listen to our concerns.’
BMA member John Williams said: ‘The strike for me is against the denigration of the profession. It’s making politically-motivated change to move towards the privatisation of the NHS.’
Medical student and BMA member Craig Nunn joined the picket. He said: ‘I support the junior doctors completely. I’m against the imposed contract that does not put in place appropriate safeguards to promote patient safety.’ Patient Kiah Hann, a veterinary student, said: ‘I’m standing on the picket line with the junior doctors because they saved my life many times.’
Nurse Tamara Bellecchia stopped by the picket. She said: ‘I support the doctors. They work many hours here. In my country, Italy, the doctors can only work eight hours a day. When you work so many hours, it’s not safe for the patients and it’s not safe for the doctors. The government wants them to work even more hours. Other unions should take action with the junior doctors, everybody can do something.’
Nicola West BMA rep at North Middlesex Hospital told News Line: ‘We knew this was going to be an ongoing problem for the last three years. The government could see that we are getting in the way of their endgame which we believe is ultimately a step towards privatisation and making the workforce as cheap as possible so we intend to continue fighting this contract which we believe will be detrimental to patient safety and the wellbeing of the workforce and has now been understood to be discriminatory against women by the government’s own admission.’
Junior doctors were joined by Unison, council workers, supporters and consultants on the picket line at Whipps Cross Hospital in Walthamstow in east London. Passing motorists tooted their horns in support to cheers from the lively picket.
Dave Knight, retired Branch Secretary of Unison at Waltham Forest Council told News Line: ‘Unison have come down to give 100% full support to the junior doctors. We believe this is part of a wider strategy by the Tories to crush trade unions and attack pay and conditions. Unison has lots of members in the hospital and we should all come out to strike together.’
Rob Owen, a retired consultant who worked at Whipps Cross Hospital for 20 years, came to support the picket. He said: ‘Consultants support junior doctors. I agree with the escalation of the struggle.’
Niki Fitzgerald, BMA rep for the junior doctors at Whipps Cross Hospital, said: ‘I went to the trade council meeting on Tuesday night and asked for their support to call on the TUC to call for a national demonstration in support of the junior doctors to build up toward a general strike.
‘At the meeting, I linked up with the NUT teachers rep so that we can have meetings and in the future the possibility of joint strike action. When you take into consideration the wide spectrum of attacks on the public sector, multiple sections of the public sector have the right to call strike action.’
At the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel in east London, junior doctors came out to the side of the main road to mass-leaflet passers-by and win support from busy passing traffic.
Kathryn Greaves, a junior doctor specialising in anaesthetics, said: ‘We are out today in opposition to the imposition of the new contract in August, it is unfair and unsafe. The bigger picture is that this is part of the privatisation of the NHS. For elective surgery at the weekend you will need other staff – theatre staff and consultants. If they want us to work doing elective surgery at the weekends they will have to come for everyone else’s contracts too. This is the start and we have to stop the ball rolling before it even gets going.’
At the picket line outside Homerton Hospital, Angela Greenford, a Unison member and admin worker for bank staff at Homerton, said: ‘In our department it is very short-staffed in terms of medical staff. There need to be more doctors and nurses, as some people have to wait three or four hours to be seen because of the lack of staff. I support the junior doctors, I know how it is to work so many hours and so many days in a row.’
At Charing Cross Hospital striking junior doctor Yvette Anan told News Line: ‘I think it speaks volumes that for the first time the BMA is considering a full walkout in the history of the NHS. I think teachers and other workers should all walk out. This government doesn’t care about disabled or the working poor.’ Neeraj Kalra, first on the the picket line at Charing Cross Hospital, said: ‘I think a contract that discriminates against women is not fit for the 21st century.’
At Hammersmith Hospital junior doctor Fiona Crotty told News Line: ‘It’s horrifying that the government has acknowleged that discrimination against women and single parents is OK with them.’ Another striker James T said: ‘You can’t fund a 7-day NHS with a 5-day budget. We’re already working at full capacity.’
On a lively picket line at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, junior doctors Frances Rogerson and Sophie Clark told News Line: ‘We’ve got to continue the strike to challenge the misinformation that this is about a pay rise when we are actually fighting a pay cut. ‘We don’t want to do the same amount of work for a 30% pay cut. We are fighting for the future of the NHS healthcare system and want to make sure there are safeguards in place.’
At Northwick Park Hospital, Susanna Olsen, Dipti Hirani and Kaniseya Nadarasa, all BMA members, spoke to News Line together, saying: ‘We think the government needs to start listening to us. The public need to know that we are doing this for a fair contract and for long-term patient safety. There is no system like the NHS and we will do everything to save it, we are one profession and we stand together for our patients.’
Jo Evans from Northwick Park Cardiac Unit, who left her desk to join the doctors’ picket, said: ‘I used to work in Ealing Hospital. Our Cardiac Rehab Unit was lovely, with positive feedback from patients all the time. Patients loved it. It has been tendered out to the community now, with Imperial Healthcare taking up the contract.
‘Now we have no cardiac rehab in Northwick Park either. All the evidence shows that cardiac patients should be dealt with on the ward after the event. If it’s in the community a lot of patients don’t turn up for their appointments. I’m supporting the junior doctors because the whole dispute is about privatisation and the destruction of our NHS. They must win for all of us.’
At Ealing Hospital junior doctors set up their strike placards alongside the banner of the West London Council of Action, which holds a daily 7am-9am picket of the hospital against the planned closure of the Charlie Chaplin Children’s Ward and A&E in June. The Council of Action is holding a meeting for all trade unionists and local people at 7pm tonight at The Dominion Centre, The Green, Southall to discuss action to support the junior doctors and stop the closure of Ealing Hospital.
BMA member Helena Lendrum told News Line: ‘It’s essential for us to realise that this is a threat to the whole NHS.’ BMA member Mohammad Razai said: ‘The entire NHS management and clinical staff leaders are aware that the contract they are seeking to impose is not workable and will destroy the NHS.’
BMA member Ravi Ganepola began by speaking about Ealing Hospital, saying: ‘You hear rumours they are going to close parts of the hospital, like we heard rumours over maternity, and you assume that they know what they are doing and if they are closing they will make provision elsewhere, but then it closes and you realise that no provision has been made elsewhere.
‘Now we hear they are closing paediatrics in June and again you imagine they will make provision, but people are concerned, and rightly. The same applies to our contracts, people can’t believe they would be so irresponsible as to impose unworkable contracts on doctors.’
In the rain and wind, over 50 junior doctors massed with their supporters outside King’s College Hospital in south London. Teachers and library workers, pensioners, nurses and patients joined them on their picket line while across the road, there was a large picket of doctors from the Maudsley Psychiatric Hospital. Doctor Chris James said: ‘The strike going well and junior doctors’ resolve is building and the feeling that now is the time to do something more, that this struggle has to have a bigger impact.
‘There have to be other unions banding together, so people are coming out together. It has become a bigger question than just the junior doctors at this stage. It’s about people looking after themselves, the healthcare, the education of their children, housing, everything, because it seems that this government, what they are after is destroying everything and pulling everything down.
‘There needs to be a conscious decision from the public that enough is enough, and that we have to come together to defend the fundamental things in life, to come together and fight for it. We need to start thinking about general strikes and as a junior doctor I would support the lobby of the TUC to discuss that.’
Doctor Marianne Narona said: ‘We all need to stand together to defend our NHS. The government have got their paws on it.’ Annie Jones, from Carnegie Library in Lambeth which has been occupied and sent a delegation to the junior doctors’ picket, said: ‘We have to show our solidarity with the whole National Health team because the cuts to the NHS are affecting the doctors now and will impact on all of us in the future. The junior doctors fight is everybody’s fight. The cuts to the NHS are affecting the doctors but will come to affect us all. We have come from the well-loved Carnegie Library
‘They are making cuts to Carnegie Library, a library very beloved by all the locals, which children come to to get an education. It is a beautiful building, a place to socialise, and they want to turn it into a gym. So we are occupying at the moment and we have come down with our banner to show solidarity with the doctors.’
Junior doctor Joe Hetherington said: ‘What is so shocking in the contract is the blatant discrimination against women and the Department of Health has acknowledged that head on, saying it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. If you are a woman, if you have children if you need childcare, it’s not our problem we need to plough on with their contract. It shows how little the government care about working people, and they want to steamroll through.
‘The bigger picture is the privatisation of the NHS. That’s their end and they will use whatever they can to get that. I think it is a tough week for the government. We should pile the pressure on them. The doctors, the teachers, the tax havens, the steel industry, we have to pile the pressure on them.’
At St George’s Hospital Tooting, Dr Andrew D’Silva, Cardiology Registrar, said: ‘There are so many factors to this contract that just make it dangerous for patients.’ About 100 pickets stood outside St. Thomas’ Hospital. Doctor Adjogatse said: ‘These new contract changes really try to turn back time. It will definitely have a negative impact on patient safety and also on recruitment and retention of staff.’
At Rotherham District General Hospital, surgeon trainee Miran Panchania said: ‘Consideration has to be given to the words of the proposed contract. It states, “We consider that the proposed payments are fair, and that any adverse effect on women is a proportionate means of addressing a legitimate aim.” It adds women doctors who have childcare commitments “should try to obtain unpaid childcare from friends or family”.’
• see more pictures in photo gallery
The News Line: News Wednesday, 13 January 2016
MASSIVE JUNIOR DOCTORS ACTION! – shakes the Tories to their core
A 200-strong picket line at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow
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MASS picket lines packed with enthusiastic doctors and supporters were the rule in every part of the country yesterday on the first day of the junior doctors strike action against the Tories’ attempt to dictate their contracts.
Commenting on the strike Dr Johann Malawana, BMA Junior Doctors Committee chair, said: ‘With junior doctors attending more than 150 pickets and ‘meet the doctor’ events up and down England, today’s action sends a clear message to Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron. Junior doctors in their thousands have made it quite clear what they think of the government’s plans to impose contracts in which junior doctors have no confidence.
‘Today’s action – one that the BMA has long sought to avoid – is a result of a fundamental breakdown in trust with junior doctors, for which the government is directly responsible. This has only been made worse by yesterday’s last minute, inept and heavy-handed attempts to bully junior doctors, lawfully taking industrial action, back into work.’
He continued: ‘We want a contract that is safe for patients, fair for juniors and good for the NHS. This is not the view of a few – as the government would have the public believe, the unprecedented scale of today’s action by junior doctors clearly demonstrates this.’
Junior doctors were out picketing at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital from 8.00am. They got a very warm response from NHS staff and patients. James Rowsen, the BMA representative and a first year junior doctor, told News Line: ‘Over the winter period the government and the BMA via ACAS met up regularly, to try and discuss a contract that would be safe and fair for junior doctors for the time to come.
‘However, the negotiations and the discussions were not concluded in the way we had anticipated or intended for the BMA. There were still elements of the negotiations regarding the safeguarding of hours and continuation of training, and annual increments of pay and annual incomes throughout the career. There’s still a lot to be worked on by those parties.
‘I think today’s demonstration should show the fact that we are very serious about what we mean, and the government would be stupid not to back down. It almost feels like the junior doctors are a trial run. No junior doctor wants to strike. Today we really need to strike, to be out here showing how serious, how important it is to the country and to the NHS as a whole, all of our patients in the future, to ourselves and our careers, to show we actually care about what’s going to happen to us next.
‘Other trade unions have been overwhelmingly supportive. Today we have got support from Unison. I know that there are others on board. We are overwhelmingly pleased that there are trade unions in support of us, and we fully support them as well.’
Over 50 doctors rallied outside Lewisham Hospital yesterday in a lively picket on the first of three days of strike action. Drivers tooted their horns as they drove by in support. News Line spoke to junior doctor Matthew Izett who said: ‘We want a contract that provides safe care and where we’re not overworked.
‘The proposed changes are unsafe for patients, doctors and the NHS as a whole. The contract amounts to an attack on all public sector workers. He added: ‘It will be junior doctors today, nurses tomorrow, and then all public sector workers.’
Dr Josh Cuddihy told News Line: ‘The NHS is stretched as it is. It needs more funding and additional resources. The NHS runs on the goodwill of staff and we need to look after the staff. The government’s proposed changes are unsafe and unfair. It means more unsociable hours and it is very short sighted. We already work long shifts and these changes will make things more dangerous for everyone.’
Junior doctors were also out in force outside the Royal Free Hospital. BMA Junior Doctors Committee member Tom Irwin told News Line: ‘We’re here because the government forced us into this position. A ballot of our members showed 98% of us support the action today. The government are taking risks to save money.
‘That will make it harder to do a good job in the NHS. It will damage the public perception of the NHS and affect patient safety. If the new contract goes through it will have a far worse effect on patient safety than any industrial action.’
BMA member Tom Palmer said: ‘One of the main sticking points of the contract issue is they want to remove safeguards against us working long, unsafe hours. Obviously, tired doctors make mistakes. You wouldn’t get on a plane flown by a pilot whose employer made him work unsafe hours. Us working long hours is just as dangerous.
‘The government are not listening, so we have to fight on behalf of everyone. This is one step in privatising the NHS. We can’t afford to lose the NHS. Other unions should take action with the junior doctors. Nurses are very supportive but we need all the unions on board.’
John, an anaesthetist, said: ‘We all support the strike. Every one of us is a bit concerned about the future. This is about patient safety, it’s about defending safe working conditions.’
Another picket, BMA member Sophie Tang, said: ‘I’m out today to oppose the imposition of the contract. It’s trying to spread a thin workforce even thinner. It’s not safe for the patients and it’s not fair for the doctors working. We’ve had a lot of support from the nurses and allied health professionals who work alongside us. A lot of junior doctors think behind this is the government’s intention to privatise the NHS.’
RCN student nurse member Andy Roy said: ‘I’m a classic bursary student. I’m nearly 40 and without the bursary scheme there is no way I could become a nurse. We’re supporting the junior doctors because they stand by us and we stand by them.
‘As has been put, we all need to stand together. This is an attack on the NHS as a whole. The fact that the government is targeting doctors and student nurses is just the tip of the iceberg. They want to make the NHS fail so they can privatise it.’
Natasha, a striking junior doctor at UCLH in Euston Road, told News Line: ‘In 2005 Hunt wrote a book in which he said the Health Service should not be free and this is part of his plan to sell off the Health Service. I don’t trust the government and Hunt. I can’t remember the last time I saw him talk to a junior doctor – he chooses to talk over Twitter and other social media.
‘We stood with the nurses in their demonstration to keep grants on Saturday and we have written support from the FBU firefighters’ union. On 10 February our strike will be full withdrawal of labour but we hope it doesn’t come to that.’
On the picket line at Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield junior doctor Sam Meadows said: ‘This is a strike that had to come, we have been headed into a corner – but it is for the benefit of the NHS. The government’s proposals are not safe for patients and not fair to the doctors. The support of the public has been overwhelming. It’s very heart-warming and we really appreciate it. Negotiations will start again tomorrow hopefully. But if it comes to more action we are prepared and we are ready.’
Mr Alex Rossdeutsch, a junior neuro surgeon at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, said: ‘This proposed contract will cause many of my colleagues to leave the NHS. When that happens, the goverment will privatise the NHS and the public will have to pay for their health. I’m striking to prevent that, to prevent the government attacking the health service in the future.’
At Ealing Hospital, where junior doctors set up their picket alongside the West London Council of Action’s daily picket, workers spoke out in favour of an all-out general strike on the third junior doctors strike on February 10th. Bus driver and Unite member Sunny Patel said: ‘I support the junior doctors 100%. This government is taking liberties now in every way. A general strike to support them is what we need.’
Bus driver and Unite member Abdi Mohamed said: ‘I support everyone coming out on February 10th and I will fight for it at my garage. Everyone needs the National Health Service and the junior doctors are leading the fight to defend it.’
Striking junior doctor Sean Morris said: ‘Ealing Hospital must not close, or be downgraded, and maternity must be re-opened. There are three strike days and the duration and intensity will increase, the tube workers are taking strike action on our next strike date. This government is attacking public sector workers and everyone should take action to defend the Welfare State.’
Foodworker John Fernandez said: ‘My wife is a patient here, we need a general strike to win this fight.’ Striking doctor Alex Adams said: ‘The government are stretching the NHS and putting patients’ lives at risk, we must win this fight.’
Striking doctor Maira Hamed said: ‘Today’s action is not just for the junior doctors, it’s for the NHS as a whole and everyone should take action to defend it.’ Anna Martin, a GP who was coming in to provide emergency cover, stopped to drop off food at the picket line and said: ‘I’m so proud and with them 100%. This contract is incredibly unsafe and detrimental to patient care. I trained at Ealing Hospital and I feel particularly passionate about this hospital which is under threat. I support the call for a general strike on 10th February, it’s the only way to show we won’t accept what the government is doing.’
‘All anti-social hours payments are in jeopardy!’ Unison member Kirth Gerson, who works in Pathology, told News Line on the junior doctors picket of Homerton Hospital in Hackney, east London. Unison and the NUT came down to join the junior doctors’ mass picket and to support their strike.
‘I am out here to support the junior doctors because they will be coming for us next,’ Gerson continued: ‘This is Agenda for Change. They want to extend our normal working hours from 6am until 10pm Monday to Sunday! This is why Unison have come down to the picket today and this is why there must be joint strike action.
‘They were going to build a new Pathology Lab at Homerton using a company called Longcross Construction. The contract went belly-up and is now in administration, the project has been abandoned. Private Canadian company Sonic Health Care now owns doctors’ laboratories within the NHS. They do tests for us here at Homerton and at the Royal Free in Hampstead and the UCLH in Euston.
‘The company want to introduce co-payment for the laboratory tests which would mean the patient would have to part pay for their own blood tests! This is totally unacceptable, the NHS must be free, we pay for it through our taxes anyway. We have to drive these private companies out of the NHS.’
Oliver Corke, of the NUT, who came down from Clapton Girls School to support the junior doctors said: ‘We wholeheartedly support the working conditions which uphold patient safety. That is why we support the strike. Patients need to be looked after and doctors need to be looked after as well.’
At the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, there was a mass picket with well over 50 supporters, members of other unions and junior doctors. Junior doctor Fiona Hansell said: ‘The massive support that we have had today just goes to show that we have gauged the mood very well. It is not just the medical unions that have come down to support us, but the non-medical unions are here as well. We have started the fight and the public will join the fight and so we have started a whole movement.’
Junior doctor Jessica Gale added: ‘The NHS staff are used to working in a multi-disciplinary fashion. We are all one NHS so we will all stand up for each other in support of the NHS. There has been no other option but to take strike action so that is what we are doing.’
Dr Hannah Marshal, working in Paediatrics, agreed. ‘This has been an absolutely last resort’ she said. We have to be united. This contract which the government is trying to impose on us is unsafe, it is not in the interests of patients, doctors or the NHS. Currently, if we work more than our rostered hours we flag it up and the Trust is fined. With the new contract this safeguard is removed.’
Aimay Mirdin, who is to become a Consultant in May, said: ‘I have been a junior doctor for the last 15 years. Essentially, I have been doing weekends and I have been doing nights. Junior doctors are the backbone of the NHS and a sure way to lose junior doctors is to make them work longer hours and to work harder. The number of times I have been on my fourth nightshift and I am so tired. I have almost fallen asleep at the wheel on my way home.’
There was a lively picket of junior doctors at Barnet Hospital. Dr Matteo De Martino, the BMA rep, told News Line: ‘I have been an obstetrics and gynaecology trainee doctor for four years and will be for a total of at least nine years. None of us wants to be here, it’s not something we feel 100% comfortable about but we recognise we have to do it.
‘If this contract is enforced then the only choice is to leave medicine or leave the country. No matter how much we love our job it is unfeasible and unsafe to provide a safe five-day, let alone seven-day service with extended hours, a 30% pay cut and no hours safeguards. The first line of attack is to drive doctors away, next create a vacuum for nurses and midwives by removing bursaries.
‘As the NHS becomes understaffed and overwhelmed the only workable option presented will be privatisation. It would be wonderful to have the support of other unions and many have already shown this.’
Simon Roth, a Consultant Paediatrician from the Baby Unit, came to give his support to the picket line. He told News Line. ‘I support the junior doctors’ action. The contract the government is seeking to impose is obscure and cynical, in keeping with their approach to undermining the NHS.’
Junior doctors held a very lively picket at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital where passers-by queued to sign their petition of support. Junior doctor William Hall told News Line: ‘I never thought I would strike, I’ve just finished an 80-hour week, this is my day off but it is so important to be here.’ Another junior doctor, Laura McGowan, said: ‘We are being asked to compromise too much of patient safety with this imposed contract.''
''Patients are right behind us, everyone is stopping to sign our petition to show their support,’ said junior doctor Owen Dineen. ‘We also have a lot of junior doctors leafleting and meeting the public at South Kensington Tube station, he said.
Car horns beeped in support of the junior doctors picket line outside Charing Cross Hospital on Fulham Palace Road. Desire Craneburough came to support the picket line and told News Line: ‘Junior doctors have been caring for patients since the start of the NHS and they’re not striking for money but for improved patient care.
‘They are here for us 365 days a year, day in day out, now I’m giving them my support. The Tories are breaking up the NHS with privatisation and we have to stop them.’
Doctors and supporters marched down Denmark Hill 50-strong, on the first day of the three days of strikes planned by the BMA to prevent Jeremy Hunt from imposing a contract which would destroy their conditions of work and the NHS.
Chris James, BMA Junior Doctors’ Representative at King’s College Hospital, said: ‘I don’t think there is any reason why we can’t come out on top in this struggle really. It’s a just cause we are fighting for. We are fighting for the future of the NHS. We are fighting against contracts that are unfair, unsafe and are starting to erode our NHS, which is free care for all and which is the right thing to happen.
‘We have the support of the public. They are behind us. We have to win this struggle, there isn’t any other option. The nurses are next. They led a magnificent march on Saturday, which I was at. The nurses are feeling it and I think that is going to filter through to the rest of the NHS as well.’
Asked if he thought that the rest of the unions should come out in a general strike in support of the junior doctors, James said: ‘I think if that is what it takes, and that is where it is going then “Yes”.’ Dr Fiona Humphries said: ‘We don’t want to strike for striking’s sake, but this government has shown its true colours, and that is something that we can’t stand for.
‘If that’s the route we have to go down ultimately – to essentially safeguard our society for future generations – then absolutely! We are here to fight contracts that are not safe and not fair. The government has got it wrong and has lost the trust of NHS employees.
‘We are here to protect the future of the NHS, because these contracts undermine the future of the NHS. I really hope Hunt capitulates. It is really sad that it has come to this that we have had to leave our patients’ in the capable hands of our consultants and come out here on strike. It’s a really difficult time’.
Dr Tom Pollak, Research Lecturer at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell, which specialises in mental health, said: ‘I think this government has been showing a lot of disdain for the electorate, and the junior doctors contract is just one of the ways they have done that.’
Dr Roxanne Keynejad, also out on the picket line added: ‘We are all junior doctors employed by south London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. We are all trainee psychiatrists and we, as one profession, are striking on a mandate by the whole junior doctor community in England over the contract that is threatened to be imposed on us in August of this year which is unsafe and unfair for patients.’
Pickets were out at St George’s Hospital in Tooting where banners were brought by Wandsworth NUT and Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Council. Junior doctors went out to campaign at Tooting Broadway underground station where they received overwhelming support.
Dr Sophie Herbert told News Line: ‘We are here because the government has ignored what we have said in negotiations and are threatening to impose a dangerous contract on us. We are understaffed and overworked and are already at breaking point.
‘I want to be able to tell my grandchildren that I fought to save the NHS. Joanne Harris, Unite Branch Secretary at Putney Bus Garage, who was there in support, told News Line: ‘Doctors deserve every bit of support they can get. The way the government is threatening them is appalling. The government has created this problem but then blames people when they go on strike.’
At St Thomas Hospital, by Westminster Bridge, there were 200 people picketing. A delegation of Nursing and Midwife students were there from Kings College. Mary Brown, a nursing student, told News Line: ‘We are here because we support the junior doctors. They have been very supportive of us in our struggles and, as professionals, we all work together.’ Dan Langley, another student, said: ‘If the Tories can upset some of the most conservative workers in the country, hopefully it will inspire others to fight against Tory austerity.’
At Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow there were 200 junior doctors on the picket lines.
Dr Attia Rehman said: ‘This new contract is completely unfair. If I was to do an on-call shift, I would get unsocial hours pay, but now they are treating it as an ordinary day which will mean a huge pay cut.’
Alex Thomson, a Northwick Park consultant, came to join the picket line. ‘I am fully behind the junior doctors. We also have a problem with our contract and the offer is going to a vote of the consultants. The future of the NHS is at stake.’
At North Middlesex Hospial about 40 docors and supporters picketed, and local junior doctor Jason said: ‘This is the first strike in 40 years, and of course doctors come from all political parties, and 98% of tens of thousands of doctors voted for this action. The contract on offer is unfair for doctors because it is asking them to work more unsocial hours for less pay, and it’s unfair for patients and public because the safeguards that stop us working long hours are being eroded. With the support of the public we will win!’
The News Line: News Wednesday, 13 January 2016
MASSIVE JUNIOR DOCTORS ACTION! – shakes the Tories to their core
A 200-strong picket line at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow
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MASS picket lines packed with enthusiastic doctors and supporters were the rule in every part of the country yesterday on the first day of the junior doctors strike action against the Tories’ attempt to dictate their contracts.
Commenting on the strike Dr Johann Malawana, BMA Junior Doctors Committee chair, said: ‘With junior doctors attending more than 150 pickets and ‘meet the doctor’ events up and down England, today’s action sends a clear message to Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron. Junior doctors in their thousands have made it quite clear what they think of the government’s plans to impose contracts in which junior doctors have no confidence.
‘Today’s action – one that the BMA has long sought to avoid – is a result of a fundamental breakdown in trust with junior doctors, for which the government is directly responsible. This has only been made worse by yesterday’s last minute, inept and heavy-handed attempts to bully junior doctors, lawfully taking industrial action, back into work.’
He continued: ‘We want a contract that is safe for patients, fair for juniors and good for the NHS. This is not the view of a few – as the government would have the public believe, the unprecedented scale of today’s action by junior doctors clearly demonstrates this.’
Junior doctors were out picketing at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital from 8.00am. They got a very warm response from NHS staff and patients. James Rowsen, the BMA representative and a first year junior doctor, told News Line: ‘Over the winter period the government and the BMA via ACAS met up regularly, to try and discuss a contract that would be safe and fair for junior doctors for the time to come.
‘However, the negotiations and the discussions were not concluded in the way we had anticipated or intended for the BMA. There were still elements of the negotiations regarding the safeguarding of hours and continuation of training, and annual increments of pay and annual incomes throughout the career. There’s still a lot to be worked on by those parties.
‘I think today’s demonstration should show the fact that we are very serious about what we mean, and the government would be stupid not to back down. It almost feels like the junior doctors are a trial run. No junior doctor wants to strike. Today we really need to strike, to be out here showing how serious, how important it is to the country and to the NHS as a whole, all of our patients in the future, to ourselves and our careers, to show we actually care about what’s going to happen to us next.
‘Other trade unions have been overwhelmingly supportive. Today we have got support from Unison. I know that there are others on board. We are overwhelmingly pleased that there are trade unions in support of us, and we fully support them as well.’
Over 50 doctors rallied outside Lewisham Hospital yesterday in a lively picket on the first of three days of strike action. Drivers tooted their horns as they drove by in support. News Line spoke to junior doctor Matthew Izett who said: ‘We want a contract that provides safe care and where we’re not overworked.
‘The proposed changes are unsafe for patients, doctors and the NHS as a whole. The contract amounts to an attack on all public sector workers. He added: ‘It will be junior doctors today, nurses tomorrow, and then all public sector workers.’
Dr Josh Cuddihy told News Line: ‘The NHS is stretched as it is. It needs more funding and additional resources. The NHS runs on the goodwill of staff and we need to look after the staff. The government’s proposed changes are unsafe and unfair. It means more unsociable hours and it is very short sighted. We already work long shifts and these changes will make things more dangerous for everyone.’
Junior doctors were also out in force outside the Royal Free Hospital. BMA Junior Doctors Committee member Tom Irwin told News Line: ‘We’re here because the government forced us into this position. A ballot of our members showed 98% of us support the action today. The government are taking risks to save money.
‘That will make it harder to do a good job in the NHS. It will damage the public perception of the NHS and affect patient safety. If the new contract goes through it will have a far worse effect on patient safety than any industrial action.’
BMA member Tom Palmer said: ‘One of the main sticking points of the contract issue is they want to remove safeguards against us working long, unsafe hours. Obviously, tired doctors make mistakes. You wouldn’t get on a plane flown by a pilot whose employer made him work unsafe hours. Us working long hours is just as dangerous.
‘The government are not listening, so we have to fight on behalf of everyone. This is one step in privatising the NHS. We can’t afford to lose the NHS. Other unions should take action with the junior doctors. Nurses are very supportive but we need all the unions on board.’
John, an anaesthetist, said: ‘We all support the strike. Every one of us is a bit concerned about the future. This is about patient safety, it’s about defending safe working conditions.’
Another picket, BMA member Sophie Tang, said: ‘I’m out today to oppose the imposition of the contract. It’s trying to spread a thin workforce even thinner. It’s not safe for the patients and it’s not fair for the doctors working. We’ve had a lot of support from the nurses and allied health professionals who work alongside us. A lot of junior doctors think behind this is the government’s intention to privatise the NHS.’
RCN student nurse member Andy Roy said: ‘I’m a classic bursary student. I’m nearly 40 and without the bursary scheme there is no way I could become a nurse. We’re supporting the junior doctors because they stand by us and we stand by them.
‘As has been put, we all need to stand together. This is an attack on the NHS as a whole. The fact that the government is targeting doctors and student nurses is just the tip of the iceberg. They want to make the NHS fail so they can privatise it.’
Natasha, a striking junior doctor at UCLH in Euston Road, told News Line: ‘In 2005 Hunt wrote a book in which he said the Health Service should not be free and this is part of his plan to sell off the Health Service. I don’t trust the government and Hunt. I can’t remember the last time I saw him talk to a junior doctor – he chooses to talk over Twitter and other social media.
‘We stood with the nurses in their demonstration to keep grants on Saturday and we have written support from the FBU firefighters’ union. On 10 February our strike will be full withdrawal of labour but we hope it doesn’t come to that.’
On the picket line at Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield junior doctor Sam Meadows said: ‘This is a strike that had to come, we have been headed into a corner – but it is for the benefit of the NHS. The government’s proposals are not safe for patients and not fair to the doctors. The support of the public has been overwhelming. It’s very heart-warming and we really appreciate it. Negotiations will start again tomorrow hopefully. But if it comes to more action we are prepared and we are ready.’
Mr Alex Rossdeutsch, a junior neuro surgeon at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, said: ‘This proposed contract will cause many of my colleagues to leave the NHS. When that happens, the goverment will privatise the NHS and the public will have to pay for their health. I’m striking to prevent that, to prevent the government attacking the health service in the future.’
At Ealing Hospital, where junior doctors set up their picket alongside the West London Council of Action’s daily picket, workers spoke out in favour of an all-out general strike on the third junior doctors strike on February 10th. Bus driver and Unite member Sunny Patel said: ‘I support the junior doctors 100%. This government is taking liberties now in every way. A general strike to support them is what we need.’
Bus driver and Unite member Abdi Mohamed said: ‘I support everyone coming out on February 10th and I will fight for it at my garage. Everyone needs the National Health Service and the junior doctors are leading the fight to defend it.’
Striking junior doctor Sean Morris said: ‘Ealing Hospital must not close, or be downgraded, and maternity must be re-opened. There are three strike days and the duration and intensity will increase, the tube workers are taking strike action on our next strike date. This government is attacking public sector workers and everyone should take action to defend the Welfare State.’
Foodworker John Fernandez said: ‘My wife is a patient here, we need a general strike to win this fight.’ Striking doctor Alex Adams said: ‘The government are stretching the NHS and putting patients’ lives at risk, we must win this fight.’
Striking doctor Maira Hamed said: ‘Today’s action is not just for the junior doctors, it’s for the NHS as a whole and everyone should take action to defend it.’ Anna Martin, a GP who was coming in to provide emergency cover, stopped to drop off food at the picket line and said: ‘I’m so proud and with them 100%. This contract is incredibly unsafe and detrimental to patient care. I trained at Ealing Hospital and I feel particularly passionate about this hospital which is under threat. I support the call for a general strike on 10th February, it’s the only way to show we won’t accept what the government is doing.’
‘All anti-social hours payments are in jeopardy!’ Unison member Kirth Gerson, who works in Pathology, told News Line on the junior doctors picket of Homerton Hospital in Hackney, east London. Unison and the NUT came down to join the junior doctors’ mass picket and to support their strike.
‘I am out here to support the junior doctors because they will be coming for us next,’ Gerson continued: ‘This is Agenda for Change. They want to extend our normal working hours from 6am until 10pm Monday to Sunday! This is why Unison have come down to the picket today and this is why there must be joint strike action.
‘They were going to build a new Pathology Lab at Homerton using a company called Longcross Construction. The contract went belly-up and is now in administration, the project has been abandoned. Private Canadian company Sonic Health Care now owns doctors’ laboratories within the NHS. They do tests for us here at Homerton and at the Royal Free in Hampstead and the UCLH in Euston.
‘The company want to introduce co-payment for the laboratory tests which would mean the patient would have to part pay for their own blood tests! This is totally unacceptable, the NHS must be free, we pay for it through our taxes anyway. We have to drive these private companies out of the NHS.’
Oliver Corke, of the NUT, who came down from Clapton Girls School to support the junior doctors said: ‘We wholeheartedly support the working conditions which uphold patient safety. That is why we support the strike. Patients need to be looked after and doctors need to be looked after as well.’
At the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, there was a mass picket with well over 50 supporters, members of other unions and junior doctors. Junior doctor Fiona Hansell said: ‘The massive support that we have had today just goes to show that we have gauged the mood very well. It is not just the medical unions that have come down to support us, but the non-medical unions are here as well. We have started the fight and the public will join the fight and so we have started a whole movement.’
Junior doctor Jessica Gale added: ‘The NHS staff are used to working in a multi-disciplinary fashion. We are all one NHS so we will all stand up for each other in support of the NHS. There has been no other option but to take strike action so that is what we are doing.’
Dr Hannah Marshal, working in Paediatrics, agreed. ‘This has been an absolutely last resort’ she said. We have to be united. This contract which the government is trying to impose on us is unsafe, it is not in the interests of patients, doctors or the NHS. Currently, if we work more than our rostered hours we flag it up and the Trust is fined. With the new contract this safeguard is removed.’
Aimay Mirdin, who is to become a Consultant in May, said: ‘I have been a junior doctor for the last 15 years. Essentially, I have been doing weekends and I have been doing nights. Junior doctors are the backbone of the NHS and a sure way to lose junior doctors is to make them work longer hours and to work harder. The number of times I have been on my fourth nightshift and I am so tired. I have almost fallen asleep at the wheel on my way home.’
There was a lively picket of junior doctors at Barnet Hospital. Dr Matteo De Martino, the BMA rep, told News Line: ‘I have been an obstetrics and gynaecology trainee doctor for four years and will be for a total of at least nine years. None of us wants to be here, it’s not something we feel 100% comfortable about but we recognise we have to do it.
‘If this contract is enforced then the only choice is to leave medicine or leave the country. No matter how much we love our job it is unfeasible and unsafe to provide a safe five-day, let alone seven-day service with extended hours, a 30% pay cut and no hours safeguards. The first line of attack is to drive doctors away, next create a vacuum for nurses and midwives by removing bursaries.
‘As the NHS becomes understaffed and overwhelmed the only workable option presented will be privatisation. It would be wonderful to have the support of other unions and many have already shown this.’
Simon Roth, a Consultant Paediatrician from the Baby Unit, came to give his support to the picket line. He told News Line. ‘I support the junior doctors’ action. The contract the government is seeking to impose is obscure and cynical, in keeping with their approach to undermining the NHS.’
Junior doctors held a very lively picket at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital where passers-by queued to sign their petition of support. Junior doctor William Hall told News Line: ‘I never thought I would strike, I’ve just finished an 80-hour week, this is my day off but it is so important to be here.’ Another junior doctor, Laura McGowan, said: ‘We are being asked to compromise too much of patient safety with this imposed contract.''
''Patients are right behind us, everyone is stopping to sign our petition to show their support,’ said junior doctor Owen Dineen. ‘We also have a lot of junior doctors leafleting and meeting the public at South Kensington Tube station, he said.
Car horns beeped in support of the junior doctors picket line outside Charing Cross Hospital on Fulham Palace Road. Desire Craneburough came to support the picket line and told News Line: ‘Junior doctors have been caring for patients since the start of the NHS and they’re not striking for money but for improved patient care.
‘They are here for us 365 days a year, day in day out, now I’m giving them my support. The Tories are breaking up the NHS with privatisation and we have to stop them.’
Doctors and supporters marched down Denmark Hill 50-strong, on the first day of the three days of strikes planned by the BMA to prevent Jeremy Hunt from imposing a contract which would destroy their conditions of work and the NHS.
Chris James, BMA Junior Doctors’ Representative at King’s College Hospital, said: ‘I don’t think there is any reason why we can’t come out on top in this struggle really. It’s a just cause we are fighting for. We are fighting for the future of the NHS. We are fighting against contracts that are unfair, unsafe and are starting to erode our NHS, which is free care for all and which is the right thing to happen.
‘We have the support of the public. They are behind us. We have to win this struggle, there isn’t any other option. The nurses are next. They led a magnificent march on Saturday, which I was at. The nurses are feeling it and I think that is going to filter through to the rest of the NHS as well.’
Asked if he thought that the rest of the unions should come out in a general strike in support of the junior doctors, James said: ‘I think if that is what it takes, and that is where it is going then “Yes”.’ Dr Fiona Humphries said: ‘We don’t want to strike for striking’s sake, but this government has shown its true colours, and that is something that we can’t stand for.
‘If that’s the route we have to go down ultimately – to essentially safeguard our society for future generations – then absolutely! We are here to fight contracts that are not safe and not fair. The government has got it wrong and has lost the trust of NHS employees.
‘We are here to protect the future of the NHS, because these contracts undermine the future of the NHS. I really hope Hunt capitulates. It is really sad that it has come to this that we have had to leave our patients’ in the capable hands of our consultants and come out here on strike. It’s a really difficult time’.
Dr Tom Pollak, Research Lecturer at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell, which specialises in mental health, said: ‘I think this government has been showing a lot of disdain for the electorate, and the junior doctors contract is just one of the ways they have done that.’
Dr Roxanne Keynejad, also out on the picket line added: ‘We are all junior doctors employed by south London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. We are all trainee psychiatrists and we, as one profession, are striking on a mandate by the whole junior doctor community in England over the contract that is threatened to be imposed on us in August of this year which is unsafe and unfair for patients.’
Pickets were out at St George’s Hospital in Tooting where banners were brought by Wandsworth NUT and Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Council. Junior doctors went out to campaign at Tooting Broadway underground station where they received overwhelming support.
Dr Sophie Herbert told News Line: ‘We are here because the government has ignored what we have said in negotiations and are threatening to impose a dangerous contract on us. We are understaffed and overworked and are already at breaking point.
‘I want to be able to tell my grandchildren that I fought to save the NHS. Joanne Harris, Unite Branch Secretary at Putney Bus Garage, who was there in support, told News Line: ‘Doctors deserve every bit of support they can get. The way the government is threatening them is appalling. The government has created this problem but then blames people when they go on strike.’
At St Thomas Hospital, by Westminster Bridge, there were 200 people picketing. A delegation of Nursing and Midwife students were there from Kings College. Mary Brown, a nursing student, told News Line: ‘We are here because we support the junior doctors. They have been very supportive of us in our struggles and, as professionals, we all work together.’ Dan Langley, another student, said: ‘If the Tories can upset some of the most conservative workers in the country, hopefully it will inspire others to fight against Tory austerity.’
At Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow there were 200 junior doctors on the picket lines.
Dr Attia Rehman said: ‘This new contract is completely unfair. If I was to do an on-call shift, I would get unsocial hours pay, but now they are treating it as an ordinary day which will mean a huge pay cut.’
Alex Thomson, a Northwick Park consultant, came to join the picket line. ‘I am fully behind the junior doctors. We also have a problem with our contract and the offer is going to a vote of the consultants. The future of the NHS is at stake.’
At North Middlesex Hospial about 40 docors and supporters picketed, and local junior doctor Jason said: ‘This is the first strike in 40 years, and of course doctors come from all political parties, and 98% of tens of thousands of doctors voted for this action. The contract on offer is unfair for doctors because it is asking them to work more unsocial hours for less pay, and it’s unfair for patients and public because the safeguards that stop us working long hours are being eroded. With the support of the public we will win!’
The News Line: News Thursday, 7 April 2016
Junior doctors confident of victory!
Teachers from Sunny Hill school in Southwark joined striking junior doctors on the picket line at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell yesterday
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A GOOD picket of junior doctors turned out at the Norfolk and Norwich hospital at 8am. They were in good spirits despite the wind and the rain.
Mid-morning a band came along with accordion, guitar and lead singer to entertain them and encourage a singalong. Off-duty firemen also came to show their support. Clinical fellow Dr Gurung told News Line: ‘How can you get a seven-day service with funding for five days? It’s not only doctors they are cutting down, it’s everything – and yet the government is promising seven days.
‘We’re already stretched in the current situation with lack of staff. They want to get the contracts changed for consultants and all NHS staff. They don’t show the detail of how they’re going to do it and it needs more money. We must defend our NHS. We don’t want a privatised system like in America.’
Dr James Rowson, BMA rep, said: ‘We hear talk from the RCN about possible strike action because unsocial hours are threatened. We are still very angry about the imposition of a newly released contract which will see unsafer working hours, reduced rates of pay, and inequality. This may see doctors leaving their jobs for better climes, piling more pressure on an already pressurised service.
‘This attack is not a standalone attack on an individual section of the workforce. It is systematic undermining of the service, starting with the doctors and is only a matter of time before allied health professionals will be similarly attacked. They are paving the way for privatisation. We need to get everyone involved. Every union should get together and defend our NHS, one of the best things about this country.’
Outside Maudsley Psychiatric Hospital on Denmark Hill, Andrew Howe, junior doctor said: ‘We are here again, for the fourth time because the government will not listen to doctors. The whole medical profession is telling them “this contract will not work”. You cannot have a seven-day NHS like they want. It already is a seven-day NHS anyway, so what are they talking about?
‘The final straw is the equality of the contract which the government has openly said “it will discriminate against women”, and that that is OK. I thought we were living in 2016 not the 1950s, so what is going on? It disgusts me! So that is why we are here protesting and we will keep going until we win.’
NUT Rep for Lambeth, Michael Holland, supporting the junior doctors at Maudsley and Kings College Hospitals, said: ‘The junior doctors’ fight against privatisation is the same fight we are facing in education – the privatisation of our schools. I would agree with lobbying the TUC to get a general strike. The old slogan, TUC Get Off Your Knees and Call a General Strike, is apt.
‘They need to do it because people on the ground – teachers on the ground, junior doctors on the ground, library workers on the ground, people all over the country – are absolutely desperate to fight back. We are beginning to get a bit off Corbyn who has taken Cameron on about off-shore tax havens, but we need an industrial strategy, to bring all the fights together and, yeah, organise together and call a general strike.
‘All this stuff about tax havens, the Icelandic prime minister resigning and Cameron coming under pressure to declare his tax returns, shows up in black and white what we have always suspected – that the rich just fleece us – constantly – every single day!
‘So much poverty, suffering, war and racism, it is obscene. I went down to Calais and taught refugees there. Brilliant people of such strength and courage despite everything they have been through, and a week later, David Cameron calls them “a bunch of migrants”. They have more integrity in the mud on their boots, than he has in his entire cabinet.’
Strikers were in a determined mood at the Royal Free Hospital, northwest London, as hospital workers and patients stopped to ask for badges and stickers. BMA rep Tom Urwin told News Line: ‘People are resilient. The tide is turning. The government’s mask has slipped with the publication of the details of the new contract. This explicitly explains their plans to disadvantage women in the workplace. We’re not going away. All the health secretary has to do is listen to our concerns.’
BMA member John Williams said: ‘The strike for me is against the denigration of the profession. It’s making politically-motivated change to move towards the privatisation of the NHS.’
Medical student and BMA member Craig Nunn joined the picket. He said: ‘I support the junior doctors completely. I’m against the imposed contract that does not put in place appropriate safeguards to promote patient safety.’ Patient Kiah Hann, a veterinary student, said: ‘I’m standing on the picket line with the junior doctors because they saved my life many times.’
Nurse Tamara Bellecchia stopped by the picket. She said: ‘I support the doctors. They work many hours here. In my country, Italy, the doctors can only work eight hours a day. When you work so many hours, it’s not safe for the patients and it’s not safe for the doctors. The government wants them to work even more hours. Other unions should take action with the junior doctors, everybody can do something.’
Nicola West BMA rep at North Middlesex Hospital told News Line: ‘We knew this was going to be an ongoing problem for the last three years. The government could see that we are getting in the way of their endgame which we believe is ultimately a step towards privatisation and making the workforce as cheap as possible so we intend to continue fighting this contract which we believe will be detrimental to patient safety and the wellbeing of the workforce and has now been understood to be discriminatory against women by the government’s own admission.’
Junior doctors were joined by Unison, council workers, supporters and consultants on the picket line at Whipps Cross Hospital in Walthamstow in east London. Passing motorists tooted their horns in support to cheers from the lively picket.
Dave Knight, retired Branch Secretary of Unison at Waltham Forest Council told News Line: ‘Unison have come down to give 100% full support to the junior doctors. We believe this is part of a wider strategy by the Tories to crush trade unions and attack pay and conditions. Unison has lots of members in the hospital and we should all come out to strike together.’
Rob Owen, a retired consultant who worked at Whipps Cross Hospital for 20 years, came to support the picket. He said: ‘Consultants support junior doctors. I agree with the escalation of the struggle.’
Niki Fitzgerald, BMA rep for the junior doctors at Whipps Cross Hospital, said: ‘I went to the trade council meeting on Tuesday night and asked for their support to call on the TUC to call for a national demonstration in support of the junior doctors to build up toward a general strike.
‘At the meeting, I linked up with the NUT teachers rep so that we can have meetings and in the future the possibility of joint strike action. When you take into consideration the wide spectrum of attacks on the public sector, multiple sections of the public sector have the right to call strike action.’
At the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel in east London, junior doctors came out to the side of the main road to mass-leaflet passers-by and win support from busy passing traffic.
Kathryn Greaves, a junior doctor specialising in anaesthetics, said: ‘We are out today in opposition to the imposition of the new contract in August, it is unfair and unsafe. The bigger picture is that this is part of the privatisation of the NHS. For elective surgery at the weekend you will need other staff – theatre staff and consultants. If they want us to work doing elective surgery at the weekends they will have to come for everyone else’s contracts too. This is the start and we have to stop the ball rolling before it even gets going.’
At the picket line outside Homerton Hospital, Angela Greenford, a Unison member and admin worker for bank staff at Homerton, said: ‘In our department it is very short-staffed in terms of medical staff. There need to be more doctors and nurses, as some people have to wait three or four hours to be seen because of the lack of staff. I support the junior doctors, I know how it is to work so many hours and so many days in a row.’
At Charing Cross Hospital striking junior doctor Yvette Anan told News Line: ‘I think it speaks volumes that for the first time the BMA is considering a full walkout in the history of the NHS. I think teachers and other workers should all walk out. This government doesn’t care about disabled or the working poor.’ Neeraj Kalra, first on the the picket line at Charing Cross Hospital, said: ‘I think a contract that discriminates against women is not fit for the 21st century.’
At Hammersmith Hospital junior doctor Fiona Crotty told News Line: ‘It’s horrifying that the government has acknowleged that discrimination against women and single parents is OK with them.’ Another striker James T said: ‘You can’t fund a 7-day NHS with a 5-day budget. We’re already working at full capacity.’
On a lively picket line at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, junior doctors Frances Rogerson and Sophie Clark told News Line: ‘We’ve got to continue the strike to challenge the misinformation that this is about a pay rise when we are actually fighting a pay cut. ‘We don’t want to do the same amount of work for a 30% pay cut. We are fighting for the future of the NHS healthcare system and want to make sure there are safeguards in place.’
At Northwick Park Hospital, Susanna Olsen, Dipti Hirani and Kaniseya Nadarasa, all BMA members, spoke to News Line together, saying: ‘We think the government needs to start listening to us. The public need to know that we are doing this for a fair contract and for long-term patient safety. There is no system like the NHS and we will do everything to save it, we are one profession and we stand together for our patients.’
Jo Evans from Northwick Park Cardiac Unit, who left her desk to join the doctors’ picket, said: ‘I used to work in Ealing Hospital. Our Cardiac Rehab Unit was lovely, with positive feedback from patients all the time. Patients loved it. It has been tendered out to the community now, with Imperial Healthcare taking up the contract.
‘Now we have no cardiac rehab in Northwick Park either. All the evidence shows that cardiac patients should be dealt with on the ward after the event. If it’s in the community a lot of patients don’t turn up for their appointments. I’m supporting the junior doctors because the whole dispute is about privatisation and the destruction of our NHS. They must win for all of us.’
At Ealing Hospital junior doctors set up their strike placards alongside the banner of the West London Council of Action, which holds a daily 7am-9am picket of the hospital against the planned closure of the Charlie Chaplin Children’s Ward and A&E in June. The Council of Action is holding a meeting for all trade unionists and local people at 7pm tonight at The Dominion Centre, The Green, Southall to discuss action to support the junior doctors and stop the closure of Ealing Hospital.
BMA member Helena Lendrum told News Line: ‘It’s essential for us to realise that this is a threat to the whole NHS.’ BMA member Mohammad Razai said: ‘The entire NHS management and clinical staff leaders are aware that the contract they are seeking to impose is not workable and will destroy the NHS.’
BMA member Ravi Ganepola began by speaking about Ealing Hospital, saying: ‘You hear rumours they are going to close parts of the hospital, like we heard rumours over maternity, and you assume that they know what they are doing and if they are closing they will make provision elsewhere, but then it closes and you realise that no provision has been made elsewhere.
‘Now we hear they are closing paediatrics in June and again you imagine they will make provision, but people are concerned, and rightly. The same applies to our contracts, people can’t believe they would be so irresponsible as to impose unworkable contracts on doctors.’
In the rain and wind, over 50 junior doctors massed with their supporters outside King’s College Hospital in south London. Teachers and library workers, pensioners, nurses and patients joined them on their picket line while across the road, there was a large picket of doctors from the Maudsley Psychiatric Hospital. Doctor Chris James said: ‘The strike going well and junior doctors’ resolve is building and the feeling that now is the time to do something more, that this struggle has to have a bigger impact.
‘There have to be other unions banding together, so people are coming out together. It has become a bigger question than just the junior doctors at this stage. It’s about people looking after themselves, the healthcare, the education of their children, housing, everything, because it seems that this government, what they are after is destroying everything and pulling everything down.
‘There needs to be a conscious decision from the public that enough is enough, and that we have to come together to defend the fundamental things in life, to come together and fight for it. We need to start thinking about general strikes and as a junior doctor I would support the lobby of the TUC to discuss that.’
Doctor Marianne Narona said: ‘We all need to stand together to defend our NHS. The government have got their paws on it.’ Annie Jones, from Carnegie Library in Lambeth which has been occupied and sent a delegation to the junior doctors’ picket, said: ‘We have to show our solidarity with the whole National Health team because the cuts to the NHS are affecting the doctors now and will impact on all of us in the future. The junior doctors fight is everybody’s fight. The cuts to the NHS are affecting the doctors but will come to affect us all. We have come from the well-loved Carnegie Library
‘They are making cuts to Carnegie Library, a library very beloved by all the locals, which children come to to get an education. It is a beautiful building, a place to socialise, and they want to turn it into a gym. So we are occupying at the moment and we have come down with our banner to show solidarity with the doctors.’
Junior doctor Joe Hetherington said: ‘What is so shocking in the contract is the blatant discrimination against women and the Department of Health has acknowledged that head on, saying it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. If you are a woman, if you have children if you need childcare, it’s not our problem we need to plough on with their contract. It shows how little the government care about working people, and they want to steamroll through.
‘The bigger picture is the privatisation of the NHS. That’s their end and they will use whatever they can to get that. I think it is a tough week for the government. We should pile the pressure on them. The doctors, the teachers, the tax havens, the steel industry, we have to pile the pressure on them.’
At St George’s Hospital Tooting, Dr Andrew D’Silva, Cardiology Registrar, said: ‘There are so many factors to this contract that just make it dangerous for patients.’ About 100 pickets stood outside St. Thomas’ Hospital. Doctor Adjogatse said: ‘These new contract changes really try to turn back time. It will definitely have a negative impact on patient safety and also on recruitment and retention of staff.’
At Rotherham District General Hospital, surgeon trainee Miran Panchania said: ‘Consideration has to be given to the words of the proposed contract. It states, “We consider that the proposed payments are fair, and that any adverse effect on women is a proportionate means of addressing a legitimate aim.” It adds women doctors who have childcare commitments “should try to obtain unpaid childcare from friends or family”.’
• see more pictures in photo gallery
The News Line: News Wednesday, 13 January 2016
MASSIVE JUNIOR DOCTORS ACTION! – shakes the Tories to their core
A 200-strong picket line at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow
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MASS picket lines packed with enthusiastic doctors and supporters were the rule in every part of the country yesterday on the first day of the junior doctors strike action against the Tories’ attempt to dictate their contracts.
Commenting on the strike Dr Johann Malawana, BMA Junior Doctors Committee chair, said: ‘With junior doctors attending more than 150 pickets and ‘meet the doctor’ events up and down England, today’s action sends a clear message to Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron. Junior doctors in their thousands have made it quite clear what they think of the government’s plans to impose contracts in which junior doctors have no confidence.
‘Today’s action – one that the BMA has long sought to avoid – is a result of a fundamental breakdown in trust with junior doctors, for which the government is directly responsible. This has only been made worse by yesterday’s last minute, inept and heavy-handed attempts to bully junior doctors, lawfully taking industrial action, back into work.’
He continued: ‘We want a contract that is safe for patients, fair for juniors and good for the NHS. This is not the view of a few – as the government would have the public believe, the unprecedented scale of today’s action by junior doctors clearly demonstrates this.’
Junior doctors were out picketing at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital from 8.00am. They got a very warm response from NHS staff and patients. James Rowsen, the BMA representative and a first year junior doctor, told News Line: ‘Over the winter period the government and the BMA via ACAS met up regularly, to try and discuss a contract that would be safe and fair for junior doctors for the time to come.
‘However, the negotiations and the discussions were not concluded in the way we had anticipated or intended for the BMA. There were still elements of the negotiations regarding the safeguarding of hours and continuation of training, and annual increments of pay and annual incomes throughout the career. There’s still a lot to be worked on by those parties.
‘I think today’s demonstration should show the fact that we are very serious about what we mean, and the government would be stupid not to back down. It almost feels like the junior doctors are a trial run. No junior doctor wants to strike. Today we really need to strike, to be out here showing how serious, how important it is to the country and to the NHS as a whole, all of our patients in the future, to ourselves and our careers, to show we actually care about what’s going to happen to us next.
‘Other trade unions have been overwhelmingly supportive. Today we have got support from Unison. I know that there are others on board. We are overwhelmingly pleased that there are trade unions in support of us, and we fully support them as well.’
Over 50 doctors rallied outside Lewisham Hospital yesterday in a lively picket on the first of three days of strike action. Drivers tooted their horns as they drove by in support. News Line spoke to junior doctor Matthew Izett who said: ‘We want a contract that provides safe care and where we’re not overworked.
‘The proposed changes are unsafe for patients, doctors and the NHS as a whole. The contract amounts to an attack on all public sector workers. He added: ‘It will be junior doctors today, nurses tomorrow, and then all public sector workers.’
Dr Josh Cuddihy told News Line: ‘The NHS is stretched as it is. It needs more funding and additional resources. The NHS runs on the goodwill of staff and we need to look after the staff. The government’s proposed changes are unsafe and unfair. It means more unsociable hours and it is very short sighted. We already work long shifts and these changes will make things more dangerous for everyone.’
Junior doctors were also out in force outside the Royal Free Hospital. BMA Junior Doctors Committee member Tom Irwin told News Line: ‘We’re here because the government forced us into this position. A ballot of our members showed 98% of us support the action today. The government are taking risks to save money.
‘That will make it harder to do a good job in the NHS. It will damage the public perception of the NHS and affect patient safety. If the new contract goes through it will have a far worse effect on patient safety than any industrial action.’
BMA member Tom Palmer said: ‘One of the main sticking points of the contract issue is they want to remove safeguards against us working long, unsafe hours. Obviously, tired doctors make mistakes. You wouldn’t get on a plane flown by a pilot whose employer made him work unsafe hours. Us working long hours is just as dangerous.
‘The government are not listening, so we have to fight on behalf of everyone. This is one step in privatising the NHS. We can’t afford to lose the NHS. Other unions should take action with the junior doctors. Nurses are very supportive but we need all the unions on board.’
John, an anaesthetist, said: ‘We all support the strike. Every one of us is a bit concerned about the future. This is about patient safety, it’s about defending safe working conditions.’
Another picket, BMA member Sophie Tang, said: ‘I’m out today to oppose the imposition of the contract. It’s trying to spread a thin workforce even thinner. It’s not safe for the patients and it’s not fair for the doctors working. We’ve had a lot of support from the nurses and allied health professionals who work alongside us. A lot of junior doctors think behind this is the government’s intention to privatise the NHS.’
RCN student nurse member Andy Roy said: ‘I’m a classic bursary student. I’m nearly 40 and without the bursary scheme there is no way I could become a nurse. We’re supporting the junior doctors because they stand by us and we stand by them.
‘As has been put, we all need to stand together. This is an attack on the NHS as a whole. The fact that the government is targeting doctors and student nurses is just the tip of the iceberg. They want to make the NHS fail so they can privatise it.’
Natasha, a striking junior doctor at UCLH in Euston Road, told News Line: ‘In 2005 Hunt wrote a book in which he said the Health Service should not be free and this is part of his plan to sell off the Health Service. I don’t trust the government and Hunt. I can’t remember the last time I saw him talk to a junior doctor – he chooses to talk over Twitter and other social media.
‘We stood with the nurses in their demonstration to keep grants on Saturday and we have written support from the FBU firefighters’ union. On 10 February our strike will be full withdrawal of labour but we hope it doesn’t come to that.’
On the picket line at Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield junior doctor Sam Meadows said: ‘This is a strike that had to come, we have been headed into a corner – but it is for the benefit of the NHS. The government’s proposals are not safe for patients and not fair to the doctors. The support of the public has been overwhelming. It’s very heart-warming and we really appreciate it. Negotiations will start again tomorrow hopefully. But if it comes to more action we are prepared and we are ready.’
Mr Alex Rossdeutsch, a junior neuro surgeon at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, said: ‘This proposed contract will cause many of my colleagues to leave the NHS. When that happens, the goverment will privatise the NHS and the public will have to pay for their health. I’m striking to prevent that, to prevent the government attacking the health service in the future.’
At Ealing Hospital, where junior doctors set up their picket alongside the West London Council of Action’s daily picket, workers spoke out in favour of an all-out general strike on the third junior doctors strike on February 10th. Bus driver and Unite member Sunny Patel said: ‘I support the junior doctors 100%. This government is taking liberties now in every way. A general strike to support them is what we need.’
Bus driver and Unite member Abdi Mohamed said: ‘I support everyone coming out on February 10th and I will fight for it at my garage. Everyone needs the National Health Service and the junior doctors are leading the fight to defend it.’
Striking junior doctor Sean Morris said: ‘Ealing Hospital must not close, or be downgraded, and maternity must be re-opened. There are three strike days and the duration and intensity will increase, the tube workers are taking strike action on our next strike date. This government is attacking public sector workers and everyone should take action to defend the Welfare State.’
Foodworker John Fernandez said: ‘My wife is a patient here, we need a general strike to win this fight.’ Striking doctor Alex Adams said: ‘The government are stretching the NHS and putting patients’ lives at risk, we must win this fight.’
Striking doctor Maira Hamed said: ‘Today’s action is not just for the junior doctors, it’s for the NHS as a whole and everyone should take action to defend it.’ Anna Martin, a GP who was coming in to provide emergency cover, stopped to drop off food at the picket line and said: ‘I’m so proud and with them 100%. This contract is incredibly unsafe and detrimental to patient care. I trained at Ealing Hospital and I feel particularly passionate about this hospital which is under threat. I support the call for a general strike on 10th February, it’s the only way to show we won’t accept what the government is doing.’
‘All anti-social hours payments are in jeopardy!’ Unison member Kirth Gerson, who works in Pathology, told News Line on the junior doctors picket of Homerton Hospital in Hackney, east London. Unison and the NUT came down to join the junior doctors’ mass picket and to support their strike.
‘I am out here to support the junior doctors because they will be coming for us next,’ Gerson continued: ‘This is Agenda for Change. They want to extend our normal working hours from 6am until 10pm Monday to Sunday! This is why Unison have come down to the picket today and this is why there must be joint strike action.
‘They were going to build a new Pathology Lab at Homerton using a company called Longcross Construction. The contract went belly-up and is now in administration, the project has been abandoned. Private Canadian company Sonic Health Care now owns doctors’ laboratories within the NHS. They do tests for us here at Homerton and at the Royal Free in Hampstead and the UCLH in Euston.
‘The company want to introduce co-payment for the laboratory tests which would mean the patient would have to part pay for their own blood tests! This is totally unacceptable, the NHS must be free, we pay for it through our taxes anyway. We have to drive these private companies out of the NHS.’
Oliver Corke, of the NUT, who came down from Clapton Girls School to support the junior doctors said: ‘We wholeheartedly support the working conditions which uphold patient safety. That is why we support the strike. Patients need to be looked after and doctors need to be looked after as well.’
At the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, there was a mass picket with well over 50 supporters, members of other unions and junior doctors. Junior doctor Fiona Hansell said: ‘The massive support that we have had today just goes to show that we have gauged the mood very well. It is not just the medical unions that have come down to support us, but the non-medical unions are here as well. We have started the fight and the public will join the fight and so we have started a whole movement.’
Junior doctor Jessica Gale added: ‘The NHS staff are used to working in a multi-disciplinary fashion. We are all one NHS so we will all stand up for each other in support of the NHS. There has been no other option but to take strike action so that is what we are doing.’
Dr Hannah Marshal, working in Paediatrics, agreed. ‘This has been an absolutely last resort’ she said. We have to be united. This contract which the government is trying to impose on us is unsafe, it is not in the interests of patients, doctors or the NHS. Currently, if we work more than our rostered hours we flag it up and the Trust is fined. With the new contract this safeguard is removed.’
Aimay Mirdin, who is to become a Consultant in May, said: ‘I have been a junior doctor for the last 15 years. Essentially, I have been doing weekends and I have been doing nights. Junior doctors are the backbone of the NHS and a sure way to lose junior doctors is to make them work longer hours and to work harder. The number of times I have been on my fourth nightshift and I am so tired. I have almost fallen asleep at the wheel on my way home.’
There was a lively picket of junior doctors at Barnet Hospital. Dr Matteo De Martino, the BMA rep, told News Line: ‘I have been an obstetrics and gynaecology trainee doctor for four years and will be for a total of at least nine years. None of us wants to be here, it’s not something we feel 100% comfortable about but we recognise we have to do it.
‘If this contract is enforced then the only choice is to leave medicine or leave the country. No matter how much we love our job it is unfeasible and unsafe to provide a safe five-day, let alone seven-day service with extended hours, a 30% pay cut and no hours safeguards. The first line of attack is to drive doctors away, next create a vacuum for nurses and midwives by removing bursaries.
‘As the NHS becomes understaffed and overwhelmed the only workable option presented will be privatisation. It would be wonderful to have the support of other unions and many have already shown this.’
Simon Roth, a Consultant Paediatrician from the Baby Unit, came to give his support to the picket line. He told News Line. ‘I support the junior doctors’ action. The contract the government is seeking to impose is obscure and cynical, in keeping with their approach to undermining the NHS.’
Junior doctors held a very lively picket at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital where passers-by queued to sign their petition of support. Junior doctor William Hall told News Line: ‘I never thought I would strike, I’ve just finished an 80-hour week, this is my day off but it is so important to be here.’ Another junior doctor, Laura McGowan, said: ‘We are being asked to compromise too much of patient safety with this imposed contract.''
''Patients are right behind us, everyone is stopping to sign our petition to show their support,’ said junior doctor Owen Dineen. ‘We also have a lot of junior doctors leafleting and meeting the public at South Kensington Tube station, he said.
Car horns beeped in support of the junior doctors picket line outside Charing Cross Hospital on Fulham Palace Road. Desire Craneburough came to support the picket line and told News Line: ‘Junior doctors have been caring for patients since the start of the NHS and they’re not striking for money but for improved patient care.
‘They are here for us 365 days a year, day in day out, now I’m giving them my support. The Tories are breaking up the NHS with privatisation and we have to stop them.’
Doctors and supporters marched down Denmark Hill 50-strong, on the first day of the three days of strikes planned by the BMA to prevent Jeremy Hunt from imposing a contract which would destroy their conditions of work and the NHS.
Chris James, BMA Junior Doctors’ Representative at King’s College Hospital, said: ‘I don’t think there is any reason why we can’t come out on top in this struggle really. It’s a just cause we are fighting for. We are fighting for the future of the NHS. We are fighting against contracts that are unfair, unsafe and are starting to erode our NHS, which is free care for all and which is the right thing to happen.
‘We have the support of the public. They are behind us. We have to win this struggle, there isn’t any other option. The nurses are next. They led a magnificent march on Saturday, which I was at. The nurses are feeling it and I think that is going to filter through to the rest of the NHS as well.’
Asked if he thought that the rest of the unions should come out in a general strike in support of the junior doctors, James said: ‘I think if that is what it takes, and that is where it is going then “Yes”.’ Dr Fiona Humphries said: ‘We don’t want to strike for striking’s sake, but this government has shown its true colours, and that is something that we can’t stand for.
‘If that’s the route we have to go down ultimately – to essentially safeguard our society for future generations – then absolutely! We are here to fight contracts that are not safe and not fair. The government has got it wrong and has lost the trust of NHS employees.
‘We are here to protect the future of the NHS, because these contracts undermine the future of the NHS. I really hope Hunt capitulates. It is really sad that it has come to this that we have had to leave our patients’ in the capable hands of our consultants and come out here on strike. It’s a really difficult time’.
Dr Tom Pollak, Research Lecturer at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell, which specialises in mental health, said: ‘I think this government has been showing a lot of disdain for the electorate, and the junior doctors contract is just one of the ways they have done that.’
Dr Roxanne Keynejad, also out on the picket line added: ‘We are all junior doctors employed by south London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. We are all trainee psychiatrists and we, as one profession, are striking on a mandate by the whole junior doctor community in England over the contract that is threatened to be imposed on us in August of this year which is unsafe and unfair for patients.’
Pickets were out at St George’s Hospital in Tooting where banners were brought by Wandsworth NUT and Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Council. Junior doctors went out to campaign at Tooting Broadway underground station where they received overwhelming support.
Dr Sophie Herbert told News Line: ‘We are here because the government has ignored what we have said in negotiations and are threatening to impose a dangerous contract on us. We are understaffed and overworked and are already at breaking point.
‘I want to be able to tell my grandchildren that I fought to save the NHS. Joanne Harris, Unite Branch Secretary at Putney Bus Garage, who was there in support, told News Line: ‘Doctors deserve every bit of support they can get. The way the government is threatening them is appalling. The government has created this problem but then blames people when they go on strike.’
At St Thomas Hospital, by Westminster Bridge, there were 200 people picketing. A delegation of Nursing and Midwife students were there from Kings College. Mary Brown, a nursing student, told News Line: ‘We are here because we support the junior doctors. They have been very supportive of us in our struggles and, as professionals, we all work together.’ Dan Langley, another student, said: ‘If the Tories can upset some of the most conservative workers in the country, hopefully it will inspire others to fight against Tory austerity.’
At Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow there were 200 junior doctors on the picket lines.
Dr Attia Rehman said: ‘This new contract is completely unfair. If I was to do an on-call shift, I would get unsocial hours pay, but now they are treating it as an ordinary day which will mean a huge pay cut.’
Alex Thomson, a Northwick Park consultant, came to join the picket line. ‘I am fully behind the junior doctors. We also have a problem with our contract and the offer is going to a vote of the consultants. The future of the NHS is at stake.’
At North Middlesex Hospial about 40 docors and supporters picketed, and local junior doctor Jason said: ‘This is the first strike in 40 years, and of course doctors come from all political parties, and 98% of tens of thousands of doctors voted for this action. The contract on offer is unfair for doctors because it is asking them to work more unsocial hours for less pay, and it’s unfair for patients and public because the safeguards that stop us working long hours are being eroded. With the support of the public we will win!’
The News Line: News Thursday, 7 April 2016
Junior doctors confident of victory!
Teachers from Sunny Hill school in Southwark joined striking junior doctors on the picket line at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell yesterday
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A GOOD picket of junior doctors turned out at the Norfolk and Norwich hospital at 8am. They were in good spirits despite the wind and the rain.
Mid-morning a band came along with accordion, guitar and lead singer to entertain them and encourage a singalong. Off-duty firemen also came to show their support. Clinical fellow Dr Gurung told News Line: ‘How can you get a seven-day service with funding for five days? It’s not only doctors they are cutting down, it’s everything – and yet the government is promising seven days.
‘We’re already stretched in the current situation with lack of staff. They want to get the contracts changed for consultants and all NHS staff. They don’t show the detail of how they’re going to do it and it needs more money. We must defend our NHS. We don’t want a privatised system like in America.’
Dr James Rowson, BMA rep, said: ‘We hear talk from the RCN about possible strike action because unsocial hours are threatened. We are still very angry about the imposition of a newly released contract which will see unsafer working hours, reduced rates of pay, and inequality. This may see doctors leaving their jobs for better climes, piling more pressure on an already pressurised service.
‘This attack is not a standalone attack on an individual section of the workforce. It is systematic undermining of the service, starting with the doctors and is only a matter of time before allied health professionals will be similarly attacked. They are paving the way for privatisation. We need to get everyone involved. Every union should get together and defend our NHS, one of the best things about this country.’
Outside Maudsley Psychiatric Hospital on Denmark Hill, Andrew Howe, junior doctor said: ‘We are here again, for the fourth time because the government will not listen to doctors. The whole medical profession is telling them “this contract will not work”. You cannot have a seven-day NHS like they want. It already is a seven-day NHS anyway, so what are they talking about?
‘The final straw is the equality of the contract which the government has openly said “it will discriminate against women”, and that that is OK. I thought we were living in 2016 not the 1950s, so what is going on? It disgusts me! So that is why we are here protesting and we will keep going until we win.’
NUT Rep for Lambeth, Michael Holland, supporting the junior doctors at Maudsley and Kings College Hospitals, said: ‘The junior doctors’ fight against privatisation is the same fight we are facing in education – the privatisation of our schools. I would agree with lobbying the TUC to get a general strike. The old slogan, TUC Get Off Your Knees and Call a General Strike, is apt.
‘They need to do it because people on the ground – teachers on the ground, junior doctors on the ground, library workers on the ground, people all over the country – are absolutely desperate to fight back. We are beginning to get a bit off Corbyn who has taken Cameron on about off-shore tax havens, but we need an industrial strategy, to bring all the fights together and, yeah, organise together and call a general strike.
‘All this stuff about tax havens, the Icelandic prime minister resigning and Cameron coming under pressure to declare his tax returns, shows up in black and white what we have always suspected – that the rich just fleece us – constantly – every single day!
‘So much poverty, suffering, war and racism, it is obscene. I went down to Calais and taught refugees there. Brilliant people of such strength and courage despite everything they have been through, and a week later, David Cameron calls them “a bunch of migrants”. They have more integrity in the mud on their boots, than he has in his entire cabinet.’
Strikers were in a determined mood at the Royal Free Hospital, northwest London, as hospital workers and patients stopped to ask for badges and stickers. BMA rep Tom Urwin told News Line: ‘People are resilient. The tide is turning. The government’s mask has slipped with the publication of the details of the new contract. This explicitly explains their plans to disadvantage women in the workplace. We’re not going away. All the health secretary has to do is listen to our concerns.’
BMA member John Williams said: ‘The strike for me is against the denigration of the profession. It’s making politically-motivated change to move towards the privatisation of the NHS.’
Medical student and BMA member Craig Nunn joined the picket. He said: ‘I support the junior doctors completely. I’m against the imposed contract that does not put in place appropriate safeguards to promote patient safety.’ Patient Kiah Hann, a veterinary student, said: ‘I’m standing on the picket line with the junior doctors because they saved my life many times.’
Nurse Tamara Bellecchia stopped by the picket. She said: ‘I support the doctors. They work many hours here. In my country, Italy, the doctors can only work eight hours a day. When you work so many hours, it’s not safe for the patients and it’s not safe for the doctors. The government wants them to work even more hours. Other unions should take action with the junior doctors, everybody can do something.’
Nicola West BMA rep at North Middlesex Hospital told News Line: ‘We knew this was going to be an ongoing problem for the last three years. The government could see that we are getting in the way of their endgame which we believe is ultimately a step towards privatisation and making the workforce as cheap as possible so we intend to continue fighting this contract which we believe will be detrimental to patient safety and the wellbeing of the workforce and has now been understood to be discriminatory against women by the government’s own admission.’
Junior doctors were joined by Unison, council workers, supporters and consultants on the picket line at Whipps Cross Hospital in Walthamstow in east London. Passing motorists tooted their horns in support to cheers from the lively picket.
Dave Knight, retired Branch Secretary of Unison at Waltham Forest Council told News Line: ‘Unison have come down to give 100% full support to the junior doctors. We believe this is part of a wider strategy by the Tories to crush trade unions and attack pay and conditions. Unison has lots of members in the hospital and we should all come out to strike together.’
Rob Owen, a retired consultant who worked at Whipps Cross Hospital for 20 years, came to support the picket. He said: ‘Consultants support junior doctors. I agree with the escalation of the struggle.’
Niki Fitzgerald, BMA rep for the junior doctors at Whipps Cross Hospital, said: ‘I went to the trade council meeting on Tuesday night and asked for their support to call on the TUC to call for a national demonstration in support of the junior doctors to build up toward a general strike.
‘At the meeting, I linked up with the NUT teachers rep so that we can have meetings and in the future the possibility of joint strike action. When you take into consideration the wide spectrum of attacks on the public sector, multiple sections of the public sector have the right to call strike action.’
At the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel in east London, junior doctors came out to the side of the main road to mass-leaflet passers-by and win support from busy passing traffic.
Kathryn Greaves, a junior doctor specialising in anaesthetics, said: ‘We are out today in opposition to the imposition of the new contract in August, it is unfair and unsafe. The bigger picture is that this is part of the privatisation of the NHS. For elective surgery at the weekend you will need other staff – theatre staff and consultants. If they want us to work doing elective surgery at the weekends they will have to come for everyone else’s contracts too. This is the start and we have to stop the ball rolling before it even gets going.’
At the picket line outside Homerton Hospital, Angela Greenford, a Unison member and admin worker for bank staff at Homerton, said: ‘In our department it is very short-staffed in terms of medical staff. There need to be more doctors and nurses, as some people have to wait three or four hours to be seen because of the lack of staff. I support the junior doctors, I know how it is to work so many hours and so many days in a row.’
At Charing Cross Hospital striking junior doctor Yvette Anan told News Line: ‘I think it speaks volumes that for the first time the BMA is considering a full walkout in the history of the NHS. I think teachers and other workers should all walk out. This government doesn’t care about disabled or the working poor.’ Neeraj Kalra, first on the the picket line at Charing Cross Hospital, said: ‘I think a contract that discriminates against women is not fit for the 21st century.’
At Hammersmith Hospital junior doctor Fiona Crotty told News Line: ‘It’s horrifying that the government has acknowleged that discrimination against women and single parents is OK with them.’ Another striker James T said: ‘You can’t fund a 7-day NHS with a 5-day budget. We’re already working at full capacity.’
On a lively picket line at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, junior doctors Frances Rogerson and Sophie Clark told News Line: ‘We’ve got to continue the strike to challenge the misinformation that this is about a pay rise when we are actually fighting a pay cut. ‘We don’t want to do the same amount of work for a 30% pay cut. We are fighting for the future of the NHS healthcare system and want to make sure there are safeguards in place.’
At Northwick Park Hospital, Susanna Olsen, Dipti Hirani and Kaniseya Nadarasa, all BMA members, spoke to News Line together, saying: ‘We think the government needs to start listening to us. The public need to know that we are doing this for a fair contract and for long-term patient safety. There is no system like the NHS and we will do everything to save it, we are one profession and we stand together for our patients.’
Jo Evans from Northwick Park Cardiac Unit, who left her desk to join the doctors’ picket, said: ‘I used to work in Ealing Hospital. Our Cardiac Rehab Unit was lovely, with positive feedback from patients all the time. Patients loved it. It has been tendered out to the community now, with Imperial Healthcare taking up the contract.
‘Now we have no cardiac rehab in Northwick Park either. All the evidence shows that cardiac patients should be dealt with on the ward after the event. If it’s in the community a lot of patients don’t turn up for their appointments. I’m supporting the junior doctors because the whole dispute is about privatisation and the destruction of our NHS. They must win for all of us.’
At Ealing Hospital junior doctors set up their strike placards alongside the banner of the West London Council of Action, which holds a daily 7am-9am picket of the hospital against the planned closure of the Charlie Chaplin Children’s Ward and A&E in June. The Council of Action is holding a meeting for all trade unionists and local people at 7pm tonight at The Dominion Centre, The Green, Southall to discuss action to support the junior doctors and stop the closure of Ealing Hospital.
BMA member Helena Lendrum told News Line: ‘It’s essential for us to realise that this is a threat to the whole NHS.’ BMA member Mohammad Razai said: ‘The entire NHS management and clinical staff leaders are aware that the contract they are seeking to impose is not workable and will destroy the NHS.’
BMA member Ravi Ganepola began by speaking about Ealing Hospital, saying: ‘You hear rumours they are going to close parts of the hospital, like we heard rumours over maternity, and you assume that they know what they are doing and if they are closing they will make provision elsewhere, but then it closes and you realise that no provision has been made elsewhere.
‘Now we hear they are closing paediatrics in June and again you imagine they will make provision, but people are concerned, and rightly. The same applies to our contracts, people can’t believe they would be so irresponsible as to impose unworkable contracts on doctors.’
In the rain and wind, over 50 junior doctors massed with their supporters outside King’s College Hospital in south London. Teachers and library workers, pensioners, nurses and patients joined them on their picket line while across the road, there was a large picket of doctors from the Maudsley Psychiatric Hospital. Doctor Chris James said: ‘The strike going well and junior doctors’ resolve is building and the feeling that now is the time to do something more, that this struggle has to have a bigger impact.
‘There have to be other unions banding together, so people are coming out together. It has become a bigger question than just the junior doctors at this stage. It’s about people looking after themselves, the healthcare, the education of their children, housing, everything, because it seems that this government, what they are after is destroying everything and pulling everything down.
‘There needs to be a conscious decision from the public that enough is enough, and that we have to come together to defend the fundamental things in life, to come together and fight for it. We need to start thinking about general strikes and as a junior doctor I would support the lobby of the TUC to discuss that.’
Doctor Marianne Narona said: ‘We all need to stand together to defend our NHS. The government have got their paws on it.’ Annie Jones, from Carnegie Library in Lambeth which has been occupied and sent a delegation to the junior doctors’ picket, said: ‘We have to show our solidarity with the whole National Health team because the cuts to the NHS are affecting the doctors now and will impact on all of us in the future. The junior doctors fight is everybody’s fight. The cuts to the NHS are affecting the doctors but will come to affect us all. We have come from the well-loved Carnegie Library
‘They are making cuts to Carnegie Library, a library very beloved by all the locals, which children come to to get an education. It is a beautiful building, a place to socialise, and they want to turn it into a gym. So we are occupying at the moment and we have come down with our banner to show solidarity with the doctors.’
Junior doctor Joe Hetherington said: ‘What is so shocking in the contract is the blatant discrimination against women and the Department of Health has acknowledged that head on, saying it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. If you are a woman, if you have children if you need childcare, it’s not our problem we need to plough on with their contract. It shows how little the government care about working people, and they want to steamroll through.
‘The bigger picture is the privatisation of the NHS. That’s their end and they will use whatever they can to get that. I think it is a tough week for the government. We should pile the pressure on them. The doctors, the teachers, the tax havens, the steel industry, we have to pile the pressure on them.’
At St George’s Hospital Tooting, Dr Andrew D’Silva, Cardiology Registrar, said: ‘There are so many factors to this contract that just make it dangerous for patients.’ About 100 pickets stood outside St. Thomas’ Hospital. Doctor Adjogatse said: ‘These new contract changes really try to turn back time. It will definitely have a negative impact on patient safety and also on recruitment and retention of staff.’
At Rotherham District General Hospital, surgeon trainee Miran Panchania said: ‘Consideration has to be given to the words of the proposed contract. It states, “We consider that the proposed payments are fair, and that any adverse effect on women is a proportionate means of addressing a legitimate aim.” It adds women doctors who have childcare commitments “should try to obtain unpaid childcare from friends or family”.’
• see more pictures in photo gallery
The News Line: News Thursday, 7 April 2016
Junior doctors confident of victory!
Teachers from Sunny Hill school in Southwark joined striking junior doctors on the picket line at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell yesterday
www.wrp.org.uk/images/photos/16-04-06-11925.jpg
A GOOD picket of junior doctors turned out at the Norfolk and Norwich hospital at 8am. They were in good spirits despite the wind and the rain.
Mid-morning a band came along with accordion, guitar and lead singer to entertain them and encourage a singalong. Off-duty firemen also came to show their support. Clinical fellow Dr Gurung told News Line: ‘How can you get a seven-day service with funding for five days? It’s not only doctors they are cutting down, it’s everything – and yet the government is promising seven days.
‘We’re already stretched in the current situation with lack of staff. They want to get the contracts changed for consultants and all NHS staff. They don’t show the detail of how they’re going to do it and it needs more money. We must defend our NHS. We don’t want a privatised system like in America.’
Dr James Rowson, BMA rep, said: ‘We hear talk from the RCN about possible strike action because unsocial hours are threatened. We are still very angry about the imposition of a newly released contract which will see unsafer working hours, reduced rates of pay, and inequality. This may see doctors leaving their jobs for better climes, piling more pressure on an already pressurised service.
‘This attack is not a standalone attack on an individual section of the workforce. It is systematic undermining of the service, starting with the doctors and is only a matter of time before allied health professionals will be similarly attacked. They are paving the way for privatisation. We need to get everyone involved. Every union should get together and defend our NHS, one of the best things about this country.’
Outside Maudsley Psychiatric Hospital on Denmark Hill, Andrew Howe, junior doctor said: ‘We are here again, for the fourth time because the government will not listen to doctors. The whole medical profession is telling them “this contract will not work”. You cannot have a seven-day NHS like they want. It already is a seven-day NHS anyway, so what are they talking about?
‘The final straw is the equality of the contract which the government has openly said “it will discriminate against women”, and that that is OK. I thought we were living in 2016 not the 1950s, so what is going on? It disgusts me! So that is why we are here protesting and we will keep going until we win.’
NUT Rep for Lambeth, Michael Holland, supporting the junior doctors at Maudsley and Kings College Hospitals, said: ‘The junior doctors’ fight against privatisation is the same fight we are facing in education – the privatisation of our schools. I would agree with lobbying the TUC to get a general strike. The old slogan, TUC Get Off Your Knees and Call a General Strike, is apt.
‘They need to do it because people on the ground – teachers on the ground, junior doctors on the ground, library workers on the ground, people all over the country – are absolutely desperate to fight back. We are beginning to get a bit off Corbyn who has taken Cameron on about off-shore tax havens, but we need an industrial strategy, to bring all the fights together and, yeah, organise together and call a general strike.
‘All this stuff about tax havens, the Icelandic prime minister resigning and Cameron coming under pressure to declare his tax returns, shows up in black and white what we have always suspected – that the rich just fleece us – constantly – every single day!
‘So much poverty, suffering, war and racism, it is obscene. I went down to Calais and taught refugees there. Brilliant people of such strength and courage despite everything they have been through, and a week later, David Cameron calls them “a bunch of migrants”. They have more integrity in the mud on their boots, than he has in his entire cabinet.’
Strikers were in a determined mood at the Royal Free Hospital, northwest London, as hospital workers and patients stopped to ask for badges and stickers. BMA rep Tom Urwin told News Line: ‘People are resilient. The tide is turning. The government’s mask has slipped with the publication of the details of the new contract. This explicitly explains their plans to disadvantage women in the workplace. We’re not going away. All the health secretary has to do is listen to our concerns.’
BMA member John Williams said: ‘The strike for me is against the denigration of the profession. It’s making politically-motivated change to move towards the privatisation of the NHS.’
Medical student and BMA member Craig Nunn joined the picket. He said: ‘I support the junior doctors completely. I’m against the imposed contract that does not put in place appropriate safeguards to promote patient safety.’ Patient Kiah Hann, a veterinary student, said: ‘I’m standing on the picket line with the junior doctors because they saved my life many times.’
Nurse Tamara Bellecchia stopped by the picket. She said: ‘I support the doctors. They work many hours here. In my country, Italy, the doctors can only work eight hours a day. When you work so many hours, it’s not safe for the patients and it’s not safe for the doctors. The government wants them to work even more hours. Other unions should take action with the junior doctors, everybody can do something.’
Nicola West BMA rep at North Middlesex Hospital told News Line: ‘We knew this was going to be an ongoing problem for the last three years. The government could see that we are getting in the way of their endgame which we believe is ultimately a step towards privatisation and making the workforce as cheap as possible so we intend to continue fighting this contract which we believe will be detrimental to patient safety and the wellbeing of the workforce and has now been understood to be discriminatory against women by the government’s own admission.’
Junior doctors were joined by Unison, council workers, supporters and consultants on the picket line at Whipps Cross Hospital in Walthamstow in east London. Passing motorists tooted their horns in support to cheers from the lively picket.
Dave Knight, retired Branch Secretary of Unison at Waltham Forest Council told News Line: ‘Unison have come down to give 100% full support to the junior doctors. We believe this is part of a wider strategy by the Tories to crush trade unions and attack pay and conditions. Unison has lots of members in the hospital and we should all come out to strike together.’
Rob Owen, a retired consultant who worked at Whipps Cross Hospital for 20 years, came to support the picket. He said: ‘Consultants support junior doctors. I agree with the escalation of the struggle.’
Niki Fitzgerald, BMA rep for the junior doctors at Whipps Cross Hospital, said: ‘I went to the trade council meeting on Tuesday night and asked for their support to call on the TUC to call for a national demonstration in support of the junior doctors to build up toward a general strike.
‘At the meeting, I linked up with the NUT teachers rep so that we can have meetings and in the future the possibility of joint strike action. When you take into consideration the wide spectrum of attacks on the public sector, multiple sections of the public sector have the right to call strike action.’
At the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel in east London, junior doctors came out to the side of the main road to mass-leaflet passers-by and win support from busy passing traffic.
Kathryn Greaves, a junior doctor specialising in anaesthetics, said: ‘We are out today in opposition to the imposition of the new contract in August, it is unfair and unsafe. The bigger picture is that this is part of the privatisation of the NHS. For elective surgery at the weekend you will need other staff – theatre staff and consultants. If they want us to work doing elective surgery at the weekends they will have to come for everyone else’s contracts too. This is the start and we have to stop the ball rolling before it even gets going.’
At the picket line outside Homerton Hospital, Angela Greenford, a Unison member and admin worker for bank staff at Homerton, said: ‘In our department it is very short-staffed in terms of medical staff. There need to be more doctors and nurses, as some people have to wait three or four hours to be seen because of the lack of staff. I support the junior doctors, I know how it is to work so many hours and so many days in a row.’
At Charing Cross Hospital striking junior doctor Yvette Anan told News Line: ‘I think it speaks volumes that for the first time the BMA is considering a full walkout in the history of the NHS. I think teachers and other workers should all walk out. This government doesn’t care about disabled or the working poor.’ Neeraj Kalra, first on the the picket line at Charing Cross Hospital, said: ‘I think a contract that discriminates against women is not fit for the 21st century.’
At Hammersmith Hospital junior doctor Fiona Crotty told News Line: ‘It’s horrifying that the government has acknowleged that discrimination against women and single parents is OK with them.’ Another striker James T said: ‘You can’t fund a 7-day NHS with a 5-day budget. We’re already working at full capacity.’
On a lively picket line at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, junior doctors Frances Rogerson and Sophie Clark told News Line: ‘We’ve got to continue the strike to challenge the misinformation that this is about a pay rise when we are actually fighting a pay cut. ‘We don’t want to do the same amount of work for a 30% pay cut. We are fighting for the future of the NHS healthcare system and want to make sure there are safeguards in place.’
At Northwick Park Hospital, Susanna Olsen, Dipti Hirani and Kaniseya Nadarasa, all BMA members, spoke to News Line together, saying: ‘We think the government needs to start listening to us. The public need to know that we are doing this for a fair contract and for long-term patient safety. There is no system like the NHS and we will do everything to save it, we are one profession and we stand together for our patients.’
Jo Evans from Northwick Park Cardiac Unit, who left her desk to join the doctors’ picket, said: ‘I used to work in Ealing Hospital. Our Cardiac Rehab Unit was lovely, with positive feedback from patients all the time. Patients loved it. It has been tendered out to the community now, with Imperial Healthcare taking up the contract.
‘Now we have no cardiac rehab in Northwick Park either. All the evidence shows that cardiac patients should be dealt with on the ward after the event. If it’s in the community a lot of patients don’t turn up for their appointments. I’m supporting the junior doctors because the whole dispute is about privatisation and the destruction of our NHS. They must win for all of us.’
At Ealing Hospital junior doctors set up their strike placards alongside the banner of the West London Council of Action, which holds a daily 7am-9am picket of the hospital against the planned closure of the Charlie Chaplin Children’s Ward and A&E in June. The Council of Action is holding a meeting for all trade unionists and local people at 7pm tonight at The Dominion Centre, The Green, Southall to discuss action to support the junior doctors and stop the closure of Ealing Hospital.
BMA member Helena Lendrum told News Line: ‘It’s essential for us to realise that this is a threat to the whole NHS.’ BMA member Mohammad Razai said: ‘The entire NHS management and clinical staff leaders are aware that the contract they are seeking to impose is not workable and will destroy the NHS.’
BMA member Ravi Ganepola began by speaking about Ealing Hospital, saying: ‘You hear rumours they are going to close parts of the hospital, like we heard rumours over maternity, and you assume that they know what they are doing and if they are closing they will make provision elsewhere, but then it closes and you realise that no provision has been made elsewhere.
‘Now we hear they are closing paediatrics in June and again you imagine they will make provision, but people are concerned, and rightly. The same applies to our contracts, people can’t believe they would be so irresponsible as to impose unworkable contracts on doctors.’
In the rain and wind, over 50 junior doctors massed with their supporters outside King’s College Hospital in south London. Teachers and library workers, pensioners, nurses and patients joined them on their picket line while across the road, there was a large picket of doctors from the Maudsley Psychiatric Hospital. Doctor Chris James said: ‘The strike going well and junior doctors’ resolve is building and the feeling that now is the time to do something more, that this struggle has to have a bigger impact.
‘There have to be other unions banding together, so people are coming out together. It has become a bigger question than just the junior doctors at this stage. It’s about people looking after themselves, the healthcare, the education of their children, housing, everything, because it seems that this government, what they are after is destroying everything and pulling everything down.
‘There needs to be a conscious decision from the public that enough is enough, and that we have to come together to defend the fundamental things in life, to come together and fight for it. We need to start thinking about general strikes and as a junior doctor I would support the lobby of the TUC to discuss that.’
Doctor Marianne Narona said: ‘We all need to stand together to defend our NHS. The government have got their paws on it.’ Annie Jones, from Carnegie Library in Lambeth which has been occupied and sent a delegation to the junior doctors’ picket, said: ‘We have to show our solidarity with the whole National Health team because the cuts to the NHS are affecting the doctors now and will impact on all of us in the future. The junior doctors fight is everybody’s fight. The cuts to the NHS are affecting the doctors but will come to affect us all. We have come from the well-loved Carnegie Library
‘They are making cuts to Carnegie Library, a library very beloved by all the locals, which children come to to get an education. It is a beautiful building, a place to socialise, and they want to turn it into a gym. So we are occupying at the moment and we have come down with our banner to show solidarity with the doctors.’
Junior doctor Joe Hetherington said: ‘What is so shocking in the contract is the blatant discrimination against women and the Department of Health has acknowledged that head on, saying it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. If you are a woman, if you have children if you need childcare, it’s not our problem we need to plough on with their contract. It shows how little the government care about working people, and they want to steamroll through.
‘The bigger picture is the privatisation of the NHS. That’s their end and they will use whatever they can to get that. I think it is a tough week for the government. We should pile the pressure on them. The doctors, the teachers, the tax havens, the steel industry, we have to pile the pressure on them.’
At St George’s Hospital Tooting, Dr Andrew D’Silva, Cardiology Registrar, said: ‘There are so many factors to this contract that just make it dangerous for patients.’ About 100 pickets stood outside St. Thomas’ Hospital. Doctor Adjogatse said: ‘These new contract changes really try to turn back time. It will definitely have a negative impact on patient safety and also on recruitment and retention of staff.’
At Rotherham District General Hospital, surgeon trainee Miran Panchania said: ‘Consideration has to be given to the words of the proposed contract. It states, “We consider that the proposed payments are fair, and that any adverse effect on women is a proportionate means of addressing a legitimate aim.” It adds women doctors who have childcare commitments “should try to obtain unpaid childcare from friends or family”.’
• see more pictures in photo gallery
The News Line: News Wednesday, 13 January 2016
MASSIVE JUNIOR DOCTORS ACTION! – shakes the Tories to their core
A 200-strong picket line at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow
www.wrp.org.uk/images/photos/16-01-12-11688.jpg
MASS picket lines packed with enthusiastic doctors and supporters were the rule in every part of the country yesterday on the first day of the junior doctors strike action against the Tories’ attempt to dictate their contracts.
Commenting on the strike Dr Johann Malawana, BMA Junior Doctors Committee chair, said: ‘With junior doctors attending more than 150 pickets and ‘meet the doctor’ events up and down England, today’s action sends a clear message to Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron. Junior doctors in their thousands have made it quite clear what they think of the government’s plans to impose contracts in which junior doctors have no confidence.
‘Today’s action – one that the BMA has long sought to avoid – is a result of a fundamental breakdown in trust with junior doctors, for which the government is directly responsible. This has only been made worse by yesterday’s last minute, inept and heavy-handed attempts to bully junior doctors, lawfully taking industrial action, back into work.’
He continued: ‘We want a contract that is safe for patients, fair for juniors and good for the NHS. This is not the view of a few – as the government would have the public believe, the unprecedented scale of today’s action by junior doctors clearly demonstrates this.’
Junior doctors were out picketing at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital from 8.00am. They got a very warm response from NHS staff and patients. James Rowsen, the BMA representative and a first year junior doctor, told News Line: ‘Over the winter period the government and the BMA via ACAS met up regularly, to try and discuss a contract that would be safe and fair for junior doctors for the time to come.
‘However, the negotiations and the discussions were not concluded in the way we had anticipated or intended for the BMA. There were still elements of the negotiations regarding the safeguarding of hours and continuation of training, and annual increments of pay and annual incomes throughout the career. There’s still a lot to be worked on by those parties.
‘I think today’s demonstration should show the fact that we are very serious about what we mean, and the government would be stupid not to back down. It almost feels like the junior doctors are a trial run. No junior doctor wants to strike. Today we really need to strike, to be out here showing how serious, how important it is to the country and to the NHS as a whole, all of our patients in the future, to ourselves and our careers, to show we actually care about what’s going to happen to us next.
‘Other trade unions have been overwhelmingly supportive. Today we have got support from Unison. I know that there are others on board. We are overwhelmingly pleased that there are trade unions in support of us, and we fully support them as well.’
Over 50 doctors rallied outside Lewisham Hospital yesterday in a lively picket on the first of three days of strike action. Drivers tooted their horns as they drove by in support. News Line spoke to junior doctor Matthew Izett who said: ‘We want a contract that provides safe care and where we’re not overworked.
‘The proposed changes are unsafe for patients, doctors and the NHS as a whole. The contract amounts to an attack on all public sector workers. He added: ‘It will be junior doctors today, nurses tomorrow, and then all public sector workers.’
Dr Josh Cuddihy told News Line: ‘The NHS is stretched as it is. It needs more funding and additional resources. The NHS runs on the goodwill of staff and we need to look after the staff. The government’s proposed changes are unsafe and unfair. It means more unsociable hours and it is very short sighted. We already work long shifts and these changes will make things more dangerous for everyone.’
Junior doctors were also out in force outside the Royal Free Hospital. BMA Junior Doctors Committee member Tom Irwin told News Line: ‘We’re here because the government forced us into this position. A ballot of our members showed 98% of us support the action today. The government are taking risks to save money.
‘That will make it harder to do a good job in the NHS. It will damage the public perception of the NHS and affect patient safety. If the new contract goes through it will have a far worse effect on patient safety than any industrial action.’
BMA member Tom Palmer said: ‘One of the main sticking points of the contract issue is they want to remove safeguards against us working long, unsafe hours. Obviously, tired doctors make mistakes. You wouldn’t get on a plane flown by a pilot whose employer made him work unsafe hours. Us working long hours is just as dangerous.
‘The government are not listening, so we have to fight on behalf of everyone. This is one step in privatising the NHS. We can’t afford to lose the NHS. Other unions should take action with the junior doctors. Nurses are very supportive but we need all the unions on board.’
John, an anaesthetist, said: ‘We all support the strike. Every one of us is a bit concerned about the future. This is about patient safety, it’s about defending safe working conditions.’
Another picket, BMA member Sophie Tang, said: ‘I’m out today to oppose the imposition of the contract. It’s trying to spread a thin workforce even thinner. It’s not safe for the patients and it’s not fair for the doctors working. We’ve had a lot of support from the nurses and allied health professionals who work alongside us. A lot of junior doctors think behind this is the government’s intention to privatise the NHS.’
RCN student nurse member Andy Roy said: ‘I’m a classic bursary student. I’m nearly 40 and without the bursary scheme there is no way I could become a nurse. We’re supporting the junior doctors because they stand by us and we stand by them.
‘As has been put, we all need to stand together. This is an attack on the NHS as a whole. The fact that the government is targeting doctors and student nurses is just the tip of the iceberg. They want to make the NHS fail so they can privatise it.’
Natasha, a striking junior doctor at UCLH in Euston Road, told News Line: ‘In 2005 Hunt wrote a book in which he said the Health Service should not be free and this is part of his plan to sell off the Health Service. I don’t trust the government and Hunt. I can’t remember the last time I saw him talk to a junior doctor – he chooses to talk over Twitter and other social media.
‘We stood with the nurses in their demonstration to keep grants on Saturday and we have written support from the FBU firefighters’ union. On 10 February our strike will be full withdrawal of labour but we hope it doesn’t come to that.’
On the picket line at Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield junior doctor Sam Meadows said: ‘This is a strike that had to come, we have been headed into a corner – but it is for the benefit of the NHS. The government’s proposals are not safe for patients and not fair to the doctors. The support of the public has been overwhelming. It’s very heart-warming and we really appreciate it. Negotiations will start again tomorrow hopefully. But if it comes to more action we are prepared and we are ready.’
Mr Alex Rossdeutsch, a junior neuro surgeon at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, said: ‘This proposed contract will cause many of my colleagues to leave the NHS. When that happens, the goverment will privatise the NHS and the public will have to pay for their health. I’m striking to prevent that, to prevent the government attacking the health service in the future.’
At Ealing Hospital, where junior doctors set up their picket alongside the West London Council of Action’s daily picket, workers spoke out in favour of an all-out general strike on the third junior doctors strike on February 10th. Bus driver and Unite member Sunny Patel said: ‘I support the junior doctors 100%. This government is taking liberties now in every way. A general strike to support them is what we need.’
Bus driver and Unite member Abdi Mohamed said: ‘I support everyone coming out on February 10th and I will fight for it at my garage. Everyone needs the National Health Service and the junior doctors are leading the fight to defend it.’
Striking junior doctor Sean Morris said: ‘Ealing Hospital must not close, or be downgraded, and maternity must be re-opened. There are three strike days and the duration and intensity will increase, the tube workers are taking strike action on our next strike date. This government is attacking public sector workers and everyone should take action to defend the Welfare State.’
Foodworker John Fernandez said: ‘My wife is a patient here, we need a general strike to win this fight.’ Striking doctor Alex Adams said: ‘The government are stretching the NHS and putting patients’ lives at risk, we must win this fight.’
Striking doctor Maira Hamed said: ‘Today’s action is not just for the junior doctors, it’s for the NHS as a whole and everyone should take action to defend it.’ Anna Martin, a GP who was coming in to provide emergency cover, stopped to drop off food at the picket line and said: ‘I’m so proud and with them 100%. This contract is incredibly unsafe and detrimental to patient care. I trained at Ealing Hospital and I feel particularly passionate about this hospital which is under threat. I support the call for a general strike on 10th February, it’s the only way to show we won’t accept what the government is doing.’
‘All anti-social hours payments are in jeopardy!’ Unison member Kirth Gerson, who works in Pathology, told News Line on the junior doctors picket of Homerton Hospital in Hackney, east London. Unison and the NUT came down to join the junior doctors’ mass picket and to support their strike.
‘I am out here to support the junior doctors because they will be coming for us next,’ Gerson continued: ‘This is Agenda for Change. They want to extend our normal working hours from 6am until 10pm Monday to Sunday! This is why Unison have come down to the picket today and this is why there must be joint strike action.
‘They were going to build a new Pathology Lab at Homerton using a company called Longcross Construction. The contract went belly-up and is now in administration, the project has been abandoned. Private Canadian company Sonic Health Care now owns doctors’ laboratories within the NHS. They do tests for us here at Homerton and at the Royal Free in Hampstead and the UCLH in Euston.
‘The company want to introduce co-payment for the laboratory tests which would mean the patient would have to part pay for their own blood tests! This is totally unacceptable, the NHS must be free, we pay for it through our taxes anyway. We have to drive these private companies out of the NHS.’
Oliver Corke, of the NUT, who came down from Clapton Girls School to support the junior doctors said: ‘We wholeheartedly support the working conditions which uphold patient safety. That is why we support the strike. Patients need to be looked after and doctors need to be looked after as well.’
At the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, there was a mass picket with well over 50 supporters, members of other unions and junior doctors. Junior doctor Fiona Hansell said: ‘The massive support that we have had today just goes to show that we have gauged the mood very well. It is not just the medical unions that have come down to support us, but the non-medical unions are here as well. We have started the fight and the public will join the fight and so we have started a whole movement.’
Junior doctor Jessica Gale added: ‘The NHS staff are used to working in a multi-disciplinary fashion. We are all one NHS so we will all stand up for each other in support of the NHS. There has been no other option but to take strike action so that is what we are doing.’
Dr Hannah Marshal, working in Paediatrics, agreed. ‘This has been an absolutely last resort’ she said. We have to be united. This contract which the government is trying to impose on us is unsafe, it is not in the interests of patients, doctors or the NHS. Currently, if we work more than our rostered hours we flag it up and the Trust is fined. With the new contract this safeguard is removed.’
Aimay Mirdin, who is to become a Consultant in May, said: ‘I have been a junior doctor for the last 15 years. Essentially, I have been doing weekends and I have been doing nights. Junior doctors are the backbone of the NHS and a sure way to lose junior doctors is to make them work longer hours and to work harder. The number of times I have been on my fourth nightshift and I am so tired. I have almost fallen asleep at the wheel on my way home.’
There was a lively picket of junior doctors at Barnet Hospital. Dr Matteo De Martino, the BMA rep, told News Line: ‘I have been an obstetrics and gynaecology trainee doctor for four years and will be for a total of at least nine years. None of us wants to be here, it’s not something we feel 100% comfortable about but we recognise we have to do it.
‘If this contract is enforced then the only choice is to leave medicine or leave the country. No matter how much we love our job it is unfeasible and unsafe to provide a safe five-day, let alone seven-day service with extended hours, a 30% pay cut and no hours safeguards. The first line of attack is to drive doctors away, next create a vacuum for nurses and midwives by removing bursaries.
‘As the NHS becomes understaffed and overwhelmed the only workable option presented will be privatisation. It would be wonderful to have the support of other unions and many have already shown this.’
Simon Roth, a Consultant Paediatrician from the Baby Unit, came to give his support to the picket line. He told News Line. ‘I support the junior doctors’ action. The contract the government is seeking to impose is obscure and cynical, in keeping with their approach to undermining the NHS.’
Junior doctors held a very lively picket at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital where passers-by queued to sign their petition of support. Junior doctor William Hall told News Line: ‘I never thought I would strike, I’ve just finished an 80-hour week, this is my day off but it is so important to be here.’ Another junior doctor, Laura McGowan, said: ‘We are being asked to compromise too much of patient safety with this imposed contract.''
''Patients are right behind us, everyone is stopping to sign our petition to show their support,’ said junior doctor Owen Dineen. ‘We also have a lot of junior doctors leafleting and meeting the public at South Kensington Tube station, he said.
Car horns beeped in support of the junior doctors picket line outside Charing Cross Hospital on Fulham Palace Road. Desire Craneburough came to support the picket line and told News Line: ‘Junior doctors have been caring for patients since the start of the NHS and they’re not striking for money but for improved patient care.
‘They are here for us 365 days a year, day in day out, now I’m giving them my support. The Tories are breaking up the NHS with privatisation and we have to stop them.’
Doctors and supporters marched down Denmark Hill 50-strong, on the first day of the three days of strikes planned by the BMA to prevent Jeremy Hunt from imposing a contract which would destroy their conditions of work and the NHS.
Chris James, BMA Junior Doctors’ Representative at King’s College Hospital, said: ‘I don’t think there is any reason why we can’t come out on top in this struggle really. It’s a just cause we are fighting for. We are fighting for the future of the NHS. We are fighting against contracts that are unfair, unsafe and are starting to erode our NHS, which is free care for all and which is the right thing to happen.
‘We have the support of the public. They are behind us. We have to win this struggle, there isn’t any other option. The nurses are next. They led a magnificent march on Saturday, which I was at. The nurses are feeling it and I think that is going to filter through to the rest of the NHS as well.’
Asked if he thought that the rest of the unions should come out in a general strike in support of the junior doctors, James said: ‘I think if that is what it takes, and that is where it is going then “Yes”.’ Dr Fiona Humphries said: ‘We don’t want to strike for striking’s sake, but this government has shown its true colours, and that is something that we can’t stand for.
‘If that’s the route we have to go down ultimately – to essentially safeguard our society for future generations – then absolutely! We are here to fight contracts that are not safe and not fair. The government has got it wrong and has lost the trust of NHS employees.
‘We are here to protect the future of the NHS, because these contracts undermine the future of the NHS. I really hope Hunt capitulates. It is really sad that it has come to this that we have had to leave our patients’ in the capable hands of our consultants and come out here on strike. It’s a really difficult time’.
Dr Tom Pollak, Research Lecturer at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell, which specialises in mental health, said: ‘I think this government has been showing a lot of disdain for the electorate, and the junior doctors contract is just one of the ways they have done that.’
Dr Roxanne Keynejad, also out on the picket line added: ‘We are all junior doctors employed by south London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. We are all trainee psychiatrists and we, as one profession, are striking on a mandate by the whole junior doctor community in England over the contract that is threatened to be imposed on us in August of this year which is unsafe and unfair for patients.’
Pickets were out at St George’s Hospital in Tooting where banners were brought by Wandsworth NUT and Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Council. Junior doctors went out to campaign at Tooting Broadway underground station where they received overwhelming support.
Dr Sophie Herbert told News Line: ‘We are here because the government has ignored what we have said in negotiations and are threatening to impose a dangerous contract on us. We are understaffed and overworked and are already at breaking point.
‘I want to be able to tell my grandchildren that I fought to save the NHS. Joanne Harris, Unite Branch Secretary at Putney Bus Garage, who was there in support, told News Line: ‘Doctors deserve every bit of support they can get. The way the government is threatening them is appalling. The government has created this problem but then blames people when they go on strike.’
At St Thomas Hospital, by Westminster Bridge, there were 200 people picketing. A delegation of Nursing and Midwife students were there from Kings College. Mary Brown, a nursing student, told News Line: ‘We are here because we support the junior doctors. They have been very supportive of us in our struggles and, as professionals, we all work together.’ Dan Langley, another student, said: ‘If the Tories can upset some of the most conservative workers in the country, hopefully it will inspire others to fight against Tory austerity.’
At Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow there were 200 junior doctors on the picket lines.
Dr Attia Rehman said: ‘This new contract is completely unfair. If I was to do an on-call shift, I would get unsocial hours pay, but now they are treating it as an ordinary day which will mean a huge pay cut.’
Alex Thomson, a Northwick Park consultant, came to join the picket line. ‘I am fully behind the junior doctors. We also have a problem with our contract and the offer is going to a vote of the consultants. The future of the NHS is at stake.’
At North Middlesex Hospial about 40 docors and supporters picketed, and local junior doctor Jason said: ‘This is the first strike in 40 years, and of course doctors come from all political parties, and 98% of tens of thousands of doctors voted for this action. The contract on offer is unfair for doctors because it is asking them to work more unsocial hours for less pay, and it’s unfair for patients and public because the safeguards that stop us working long hours are being eroded. With the support of the public we will win!’
The News Line: News Wednesday, 13 January 2016
MASSIVE JUNIOR DOCTORS ACTION! – shakes the Tories to their core
A 200-strong picket line at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow
www.wrp.org.uk/images/photos/16-01-12-11688.jpg
MASS picket lines packed with enthusiastic doctors and supporters were the rule in every part of the country yesterday on the first day of the junior doctors strike action against the Tories’ attempt to dictate their contracts.
Commenting on the strike Dr Johann Malawana, BMA Junior Doctors Committee chair, said: ‘With junior doctors attending more than 150 pickets and ‘meet the doctor’ events up and down England, today’s action sends a clear message to Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron. Junior doctors in their thousands have made it quite clear what they think of the government’s plans to impose contracts in which junior doctors have no confidence.
‘Today’s action – one that the BMA has long sought to avoid – is a result of a fundamental breakdown in trust with junior doctors, for which the government is directly responsible. This has only been made worse by yesterday’s last minute, inept and heavy-handed attempts to bully junior doctors, lawfully taking industrial action, back into work.’
He continued: ‘We want a contract that is safe for patients, fair for juniors and good for the NHS. This is not the view of a few – as the government would have the public believe, the unprecedented scale of today’s action by junior doctors clearly demonstrates this.’
Junior doctors were out picketing at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital from 8.00am. They got a very warm response from NHS staff and patients. James Rowsen, the BMA representative and a first year junior doctor, told News Line: ‘Over the winter period the government and the BMA via ACAS met up regularly, to try and discuss a contract that would be safe and fair for junior doctors for the time to come.
‘However, the negotiations and the discussions were not concluded in the way we had anticipated or intended for the BMA. There were still elements of the negotiations regarding the safeguarding of hours and continuation of training, and annual increments of pay and annual incomes throughout the career. There’s still a lot to be worked on by those parties.
‘I think today’s demonstration should show the fact that we are very serious about what we mean, and the government would be stupid not to back down. It almost feels like the junior doctors are a trial run. No junior doctor wants to strike. Today we really need to strike, to be out here showing how serious, how important it is to the country and to the NHS as a whole, all of our patients in the future, to ourselves and our careers, to show we actually care about what’s going to happen to us next.
‘Other trade unions have been overwhelmingly supportive. Today we have got support from Unison. I know that there are others on board. We are overwhelmingly pleased that there are trade unions in support of us, and we fully support them as well.’
Over 50 doctors rallied outside Lewisham Hospital yesterday in a lively picket on the first of three days of strike action. Drivers tooted their horns as they drove by in support. News Line spoke to junior doctor Matthew Izett who said: ‘We want a contract that provides safe care and where we’re not overworked.
‘The proposed changes are unsafe for patients, doctors and the NHS as a whole. The contract amounts to an attack on all public sector workers. He added: ‘It will be junior doctors today, nurses tomorrow, and then all public sector workers.’
Dr Josh Cuddihy told News Line: ‘The NHS is stretched as it is. It needs more funding and additional resources. The NHS runs on the goodwill of staff and we need to look after the staff. The government’s proposed changes are unsafe and unfair. It means more unsociable hours and it is very short sighted. We already work long shifts and these changes will make things more dangerous for everyone.’
Junior doctors were also out in force outside the Royal Free Hospital. BMA Junior Doctors Committee member Tom Irwin told News Line: ‘We’re here because the government forced us into this position. A ballot of our members showed 98% of us support the action today. The government are taking risks to save money.
‘That will make it harder to do a good job in the NHS. It will damage the public perception of the NHS and affect patient safety. If the new contract goes through it will have a far worse effect on patient safety than any industrial action.’
BMA member Tom Palmer said: ‘One of the main sticking points of the contract issue is they want to remove safeguards against us working long, unsafe hours. Obviously, tired doctors make mistakes. You wouldn’t get on a plane flown by a pilot whose employer made him work unsafe hours. Us working long hours is just as dangerous.
‘The government are not listening, so we have to fight on behalf of everyone. This is one step in privatising the NHS. We can’t afford to lose the NHS. Other unions should take action with the junior doctors. Nurses are very supportive but we need all the unions on board.’
John, an anaesthetist, said: ‘We all support the strike. Every one of us is a bit concerned about the future. This is about patient safety, it’s about defending safe working conditions.’
Another picket, BMA member Sophie Tang, said: ‘I’m out today to oppose the imposition of the contract. It’s trying to spread a thin workforce even thinner. It’s not safe for the patients and it’s not fair for the doctors working. We’ve had a lot of support from the nurses and allied health professionals who work alongside us. A lot of junior doctors think behind this is the government’s intention to privatise the NHS.’
RCN student nurse member Andy Roy said: ‘I’m a classic bursary student. I’m nearly 40 and without the bursary scheme there is no way I could become a nurse. We’re supporting the junior doctors because they stand by us and we stand by them.
‘As has been put, we all need to stand together. This is an attack on the NHS as a whole. The fact that the government is targeting doctors and student nurses is just the tip of the iceberg. They want to make the NHS fail so they can privatise it.’
Natasha, a striking junior doctor at UCLH in Euston Road, told News Line: ‘In 2005 Hunt wrote a book in which he said the Health Service should not be free and this is part of his plan to sell off the Health Service. I don’t trust the government and Hunt. I can’t remember the last time I saw him talk to a junior doctor – he chooses to talk over Twitter and other social media.
‘We stood with the nurses in their demonstration to keep grants on Saturday and we have written support from the FBU firefighters’ union. On 10 February our strike will be full withdrawal of labour but we hope it doesn’t come to that.’
On the picket line at Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield junior doctor Sam Meadows said: ‘This is a strike that had to come, we have been headed into a corner – but it is for the benefit of the NHS. The government’s proposals are not safe for patients and not fair to the doctors. The support of the public has been overwhelming. It’s very heart-warming and we really appreciate it. Negotiations will start again tomorrow hopefully. But if it comes to more action we are prepared and we are ready.’
Mr Alex Rossdeutsch, a junior neuro surgeon at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, said: ‘This proposed contract will cause many of my colleagues to leave the NHS. When that happens, the goverment will privatise the NHS and the public will have to pay for their health. I’m striking to prevent that, to prevent the government attacking the health service in the future.’
At Ealing Hospital, where junior doctors set up their picket alongside the West London Council of Action’s daily picket, workers spoke out in favour of an all-out general strike on the third junior doctors strike on February 10th. Bus driver and Unite member Sunny Patel said: ‘I support the junior doctors 100%. This government is taking liberties now in every way. A general strike to support them is what we need.’
Bus driver and Unite member Abdi Mohamed said: ‘I support everyone coming out on February 10th and I will fight for it at my garage. Everyone needs the National Health Service and the junior doctors are leading the fight to defend it.’
Striking junior doctor Sean Morris said: ‘Ealing Hospital must not close, or be downgraded, and maternity must be re-opened. There are three strike days and the duration and intensity will increase, the tube workers are taking strike action on our next strike date. This government is attacking public sector workers and everyone should take action to defend the Welfare State.’
Foodworker John Fernandez said: ‘My wife is a patient here, we need a general strike to win this fight.’ Striking doctor Alex Adams said: ‘The government are stretching the NHS and putting patients’ lives at risk, we must win this fight.’
Striking doctor Maira Hamed said: ‘Today’s action is not just for the junior doctors, it’s for the NHS as a whole and everyone should take action to defend it.’ Anna Martin, a GP who was coming in to provide emergency cover, stopped to drop off food at the picket line and said: ‘I’m so proud and with them 100%. This contract is incredibly unsafe and detrimental to patient care. I trained at Ealing Hospital and I feel particularly passionate about this hospital which is under threat. I support the call for a general strike on 10th February, it’s the only way to show we won’t accept what the government is doing.’
‘All anti-social hours payments are in jeopardy!’ Unison member Kirth Gerson, who works in Pathology, told News Line on the junior doctors picket of Homerton Hospital in Hackney, east London. Unison and the NUT came down to join the junior doctors’ mass picket and to support their strike.
‘I am out here to support the junior doctors because they will be coming for us next,’ Gerson continued: ‘This is Agenda for Change. They want to extend our normal working hours from 6am until 10pm Monday to Sunday! This is why Unison have come down to the picket today and this is why there must be joint strike action.
‘They were going to build a new Pathology Lab at Homerton using a company called Longcross Construction. The contract went belly-up and is now in administration, the project has been abandoned. Private Canadian company Sonic Health Care now owns doctors’ laboratories within the NHS. They do tests for us here at Homerton and at the Royal Free in Hampstead and the UCLH in Euston.
‘The company want to introduce co-payment for the laboratory tests which would mean the patient would have to part pay for their own blood tests! This is totally unacceptable, the NHS must be free, we pay for it through our taxes anyway. We have to drive these private companies out of the NHS.’
Oliver Corke, of the NUT, who came down from Clapton Girls School to support the junior doctors said: ‘We wholeheartedly support the working conditions which uphold patient safety. That is why we support the strike. Patients need to be looked after and doctors need to be looked after as well.’
At the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, there was a mass picket with well over 50 supporters, members of other unions and junior doctors. Junior doctor Fiona Hansell said: ‘The massive support that we have had today just goes to show that we have gauged the mood very well. It is not just the medical unions that have come down to support us, but the non-medical unions are here as well. We have started the fight and the public will join the fight and so we have started a whole movement.’
Junior doctor Jessica Gale added: ‘The NHS staff are used to working in a multi-disciplinary fashion. We are all one NHS so we will all stand up for each other in support of the NHS. There has been no other option but to take strike action so that is what we are doing.’
Dr Hannah Marshal, working in Paediatrics, agreed. ‘This has been an absolutely last resort’ she said. We have to be united. This contract which the government is trying to impose on us is unsafe, it is not in the interests of patients, doctors or the NHS. Currently, if we work more than our rostered hours we flag it up and the Trust is fined. With the new contract this safeguard is removed.’
Aimay Mirdin, who is to become a Consultant in May, said: ‘I have been a junior doctor for the last 15 years. Essentially, I have been doing weekends and I have been doing nights. Junior doctors are the backbone of the NHS and a sure way to lose junior doctors is to make them work longer hours and to work harder. The number of times I have been on my fourth nightshift and I am so tired. I have almost fallen asleep at the wheel on my way home.’
There was a lively picket of junior doctors at Barnet Hospital. Dr Matteo De Martino, the BMA rep, told News Line: ‘I have been an obstetrics and gynaecology trainee doctor for four years and will be for a total of at least nine years. None of us wants to be here, it’s not something we feel 100% comfortable about but we recognise we have to do it.
‘If this contract is enforced then the only choice is to leave medicine or leave the country. No matter how much we love our job it is unfeasible and unsafe to provide a safe five-day, let alone seven-day service with extended hours, a 30% pay cut and no hours safeguards. The first line of attack is to drive doctors away, next create a vacuum for nurses and midwives by removing bursaries.
‘As the NHS becomes understaffed and overwhelmed the only workable option presented will be privatisation. It would be wonderful to have the support of other unions and many have already shown this.’
Simon Roth, a Consultant Paediatrician from the Baby Unit, came to give his support to the picket line. He told News Line. ‘I support the junior doctors’ action. The contract the government is seeking to impose is obscure and cynical, in keeping with their approach to undermining the NHS.’
Junior doctors held a very lively picket at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital where passers-by queued to sign their petition of support. Junior doctor William Hall told News Line: ‘I never thought I would strike, I’ve just finished an 80-hour week, this is my day off but it is so important to be here.’ Another junior doctor, Laura McGowan, said: ‘We are being asked to compromise too much of patient safety with this imposed contract.''
''Patients are right behind us, everyone is stopping to sign our petition to show their support,’ said junior doctor Owen Dineen. ‘We also have a lot of junior doctors leafleting and meeting the public at South Kensington Tube station, he said.
Car horns beeped in support of the junior doctors picket line outside Charing Cross Hospital on Fulham Palace Road. Desire Craneburough came to support the picket line and told News Line: ‘Junior doctors have been caring for patients since the start of the NHS and they’re not striking for money but for improved patient care.
‘They are here for us 365 days a year, day in day out, now I’m giving them my support. The Tories are breaking up the NHS with privatisation and we have to stop them.’
Doctors and supporters marched down Denmark Hill 50-strong, on the first day of the three days of strikes planned by the BMA to prevent Jeremy Hunt from imposing a contract which would destroy their conditions of work and the NHS.
Chris James, BMA Junior Doctors’ Representative at King’s College Hospital, said: ‘I don’t think there is any reason why we can’t come out on top in this struggle really. It’s a just cause we are fighting for. We are fighting for the future of the NHS. We are fighting against contracts that are unfair, unsafe and are starting to erode our NHS, which is free care for all and which is the right thing to happen.
‘We have the support of the public. They are behind us. We have to win this struggle, there isn’t any other option. The nurses are next. They led a magnificent march on Saturday, which I was at. The nurses are feeling it and I think that is going to filter through to the rest of the NHS as well.’
Asked if he thought that the rest of the unions should come out in a general strike in support of the junior doctors, James said: ‘I think if that is what it takes, and that is where it is going then “Yes”.’ Dr Fiona Humphries said: ‘We don’t want to strike for striking’s sake, but this government has shown its true colours, and that is something that we can’t stand for.
‘If that’s the route we have to go down ultimately – to essentially safeguard our society for future generations – then absolutely! We are here to fight contracts that are not safe and not fair. The government has got it wrong and has lost the trust of NHS employees.
‘We are here to protect the future of the NHS, because these contracts undermine the future of the NHS. I really hope Hunt capitulates. It is really sad that it has come to this that we have had to leave our patients’ in the capable hands of our consultants and come out here on strike. It’s a really difficult time’.
Dr Tom Pollak, Research Lecturer at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell, which specialises in mental health, said: ‘I think this government has been showing a lot of disdain for the electorate, and the junior doctors contract is just one of the ways they have done that.’
Dr Roxanne Keynejad, also out on the picket line added: ‘We are all junior doctors employed by south London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. We are all trainee psychiatrists and we, as one profession, are striking on a mandate by the whole junior doctor community in England over the contract that is threatened to be imposed on us in August of this year which is unsafe and unfair for patients.’
Pickets were out at St George’s Hospital in Tooting where banners were brought by Wandsworth NUT and Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Council. Junior doctors went out to campaign at Tooting Broadway underground station where they received overwhelming support.
Dr Sophie Herbert told News Line: ‘We are here because the government has ignored what we have said in negotiations and are threatening to impose a dangerous contract on us. We are understaffed and overworked and are already at breaking point.
‘I want to be able to tell my grandchildren that I fought to save the NHS. Joanne Harris, Unite Branch Secretary at Putney Bus Garage, who was there in support, told News Line: ‘Doctors deserve every bit of support they can get. The way the government is threatening them is appalling. The government has created this problem but then blames people when they go on strike.’
At St Thomas Hospital, by Westminster Bridge, there were 200 people picketing. A delegation of Nursing and Midwife students were there from Kings College. Mary Brown, a nursing student, told News Line: ‘We are here because we support the junior doctors. They have been very supportive of us in our struggles and, as professionals, we all work together.’ Dan Langley, another student, said: ‘If the Tories can upset some of the most conservative workers in the country, hopefully it will inspire others to fight against Tory austerity.’
At Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow there were 200 junior doctors on the picket lines.
Dr Attia Rehman said: ‘This new contract is completely unfair. If I was to do an on-call shift, I would get unsocial hours pay, but now they are treating it as an ordinary day which will mean a huge pay cut.’
Alex Thomson, a Northwick Park consultant, came to join the picket line. ‘I am fully behind the junior doctors. We also have a problem with our contract and the offer is going to a vote of the consultants. The future of the NHS is at stake.’
At North Middlesex Hospial about 40 docors and supporters picketed, and local junior doctor Jason said: ‘This is the first strike in 40 years, and of course doctors come from all political parties, and 98% of tens of thousands of doctors voted for this action. The contract on offer is unfair for doctors because it is asking them to work more unsocial hours for less pay, and it’s unfair for patients and public because the safeguards that stop us working long hours are being eroded. With the support of the public we will win!’
The News Line: News Wednesday, 13 January 2016
MASSIVE JUNIOR DOCTORS ACTION! – shakes the Tories to their core
A 200-strong picket line at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow
www.wrp.org.uk/images/photos/16-01-12-11688.jpg
MASS picket lines packed with enthusiastic doctors and supporters were the rule in every part of the country yesterday on the first day of the junior doctors strike action against the Tories’ attempt to dictate their contracts.
Commenting on the strike Dr Johann Malawana, BMA Junior Doctors Committee chair, said: ‘With junior doctors attending more than 150 pickets and ‘meet the doctor’ events up and down England, today’s action sends a clear message to Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron. Junior doctors in their thousands have made it quite clear what they think of the government’s plans to impose contracts in which junior doctors have no confidence.
‘Today’s action – one that the BMA has long sought to avoid – is a result of a fundamental breakdown in trust with junior doctors, for which the government is directly responsible. This has only been made worse by yesterday’s last minute, inept and heavy-handed attempts to bully junior doctors, lawfully taking industrial action, back into work.’
He continued: ‘We want a contract that is safe for patients, fair for juniors and good for the NHS. This is not the view of a few – as the government would have the public believe, the unprecedented scale of today’s action by junior doctors clearly demonstrates this.’
Junior doctors were out picketing at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital from 8.00am. They got a very warm response from NHS staff and patients. James Rowsen, the BMA representative and a first year junior doctor, told News Line: ‘Over the winter period the government and the BMA via ACAS met up regularly, to try and discuss a contract that would be safe and fair for junior doctors for the time to come.
‘However, the negotiations and the discussions were not concluded in the way we had anticipated or intended for the BMA. There were still elements of the negotiations regarding the safeguarding of hours and continuation of training, and annual increments of pay and annual incomes throughout the career. There’s still a lot to be worked on by those parties.
‘I think today’s demonstration should show the fact that we are very serious about what we mean, and the government would be stupid not to back down. It almost feels like the junior doctors are a trial run. No junior doctor wants to strike. Today we really need to strike, to be out here showing how serious, how important it is to the country and to the NHS as a whole, all of our patients in the future, to ourselves and our careers, to show we actually care about what’s going to happen to us next.
‘Other trade unions have been overwhelmingly supportive. Today we have got support from Unison. I know that there are others on board. We are overwhelmingly pleased that there are trade unions in support of us, and we fully support them as well.’
Over 50 doctors rallied outside Lewisham Hospital yesterday in a lively picket on the first of three days of strike action. Drivers tooted their horns as they drove by in support. News Line spoke to junior doctor Matthew Izett who said: ‘We want a contract that provides safe care and where we’re not overworked.
‘The proposed changes are unsafe for patients, doctors and the NHS as a whole. The contract amounts to an attack on all public sector workers. He added: ‘It will be junior doctors today, nurses tomorrow, and then all public sector workers.’
Dr Josh Cuddihy told News Line: ‘The NHS is stretched as it is. It needs more funding and additional resources. The NHS runs on the goodwill of staff and we need to look after the staff. The government’s proposed changes are unsafe and unfair. It means more unsociable hours and it is very short sighted. We already work long shifts and these changes will make things more dangerous for everyone.’
Junior doctors were also out in force outside the Royal Free Hospital. BMA Junior Doctors Committee member Tom Irwin told News Line: ‘We’re here because the government forced us into this position. A ballot of our members showed 98% of us support the action today. The government are taking risks to save money.
‘That will make it harder to do a good job in the NHS. It will damage the public perception of the NHS and affect patient safety. If the new contract goes through it will have a far worse effect on patient safety than any industrial action.’
BMA member Tom Palmer said: ‘One of the main sticking points of the contract issue is they want to remove safeguards against us working long, unsafe hours. Obviously, tired doctors make mistakes. You wouldn’t get on a plane flown by a pilot whose employer made him work unsafe hours. Us working long hours is just as dangerous.
‘The government are not listening, so we have to fight on behalf of everyone. This is one step in privatising the NHS. We can’t afford to lose the NHS. Other unions should take action with the junior doctors. Nurses are very supportive but we need all the unions on board.’
John, an anaesthetist, said: ‘We all support the strike. Every one of us is a bit concerned about the future. This is about patient safety, it’s about defending safe working conditions.’
Another picket, BMA member Sophie Tang, said: ‘I’m out today to oppose the imposition of the contract. It’s trying to spread a thin workforce even thinner. It’s not safe for the patients and it’s not fair for the doctors working. We’ve had a lot of support from the nurses and allied health professionals who work alongside us. A lot of junior doctors think behind this is the government’s intention to privatise the NHS.’
RCN student nurse member Andy Roy said: ‘I’m a classic bursary student. I’m nearly 40 and without the bursary scheme there is no way I could become a nurse. We’re supporting the junior doctors because they stand by us and we stand by them.
‘As has been put, we all need to stand together. This is an attack on the NHS as a whole. The fact that the government is targeting doctors and student nurses is just the tip of the iceberg. They want to make the NHS fail so they can privatise it.’
Natasha, a striking junior doctor at UCLH in Euston Road, told News Line: ‘In 2005 Hunt wrote a book in which he said the Health Service should not be free and this is part of his plan to sell off the Health Service. I don’t trust the government and Hunt. I can’t remember the last time I saw him talk to a junior doctor – he chooses to talk over Twitter and other social media.
‘We stood with the nurses in their demonstration to keep grants on Saturday and we have written support from the FBU firefighters’ union. On 10 February our strike will be full withdrawal of labour but we hope it doesn’t come to that.’
On the picket line at Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield junior doctor Sam Meadows said: ‘This is a strike that had to come, we have been headed into a corner – but it is for the benefit of the NHS. The government’s proposals are not safe for patients and not fair to the doctors. The support of the public has been overwhelming. It’s very heart-warming and we really appreciate it. Negotiations will start again tomorrow hopefully. But if it comes to more action we are prepared and we are ready.’
Mr Alex Rossdeutsch, a junior neuro surgeon at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, said: ‘This proposed contract will cause many of my colleagues to leave the NHS. When that happens, the goverment will privatise the NHS and the public will have to pay for their health. I’m striking to prevent that, to prevent the government attacking the health service in the future.’
At Ealing Hospital, where junior doctors set up their picket alongside the West London Council of Action’s daily picket, workers spoke out in favour of an all-out general strike on the third junior doctors strike on February 10th. Bus driver and Unite member Sunny Patel said: ‘I support the junior doctors 100%. This government is taking liberties now in every way. A general strike to support them is what we need.’
Bus driver and Unite member Abdi Mohamed said: ‘I support everyone coming out on February 10th and I will fight for it at my garage. Everyone needs the National Health Service and the junior doctors are leading the fight to defend it.’
Striking junior doctor Sean Morris said: ‘Ealing Hospital must not close, or be downgraded, and maternity must be re-opened. There are three strike days and the duration and intensity will increase, the tube workers are taking strike action on our next strike date. This government is attacking public sector workers and everyone should take action to defend the Welfare State.’
Foodworker John Fernandez said: ‘My wife is a patient here, we need a general strike to win this fight.’ Striking doctor Alex Adams said: ‘The government are stretching the NHS and putting patients’ lives at risk, we must win this fight.’
Striking doctor Maira Hamed said: ‘Today’s action is not just for the junior doctors, it’s for the NHS as a whole and everyone should take action to defend it.’ Anna Martin, a GP who was coming in to provide emergency cover, stopped to drop off food at the picket line and said: ‘I’m so proud and with them 100%. This contract is incredibly unsafe and detrimental to patient care. I trained at Ealing Hospital and I feel particularly passionate about this hospital which is under threat. I support the call for a general strike on 10th February, it’s the only way to show we won’t accept what the government is doing.’
‘All anti-social hours payments are in jeopardy!’ Unison member Kirth Gerson, who works in Pathology, told News Line on the junior doctors picket of Homerton Hospital in Hackney, east London. Unison and the NUT came down to join the junior doctors’ mass picket and to support their strike.
‘I am out here to support the junior doctors because they will be coming for us next,’ Gerson continued: ‘This is Agenda for Change. They want to extend our normal working hours from 6am until 10pm Monday to Sunday! This is why Unison have come down to the picket today and this is why there must be joint strike action.
‘They were going to build a new Pathology Lab at Homerton using a company called Longcross Construction. The contract went belly-up and is now in administration, the project has been abandoned. Private Canadian company Sonic Health Care now owns doctors’ laboratories within the NHS. They do tests for us here at Homerton and at the Royal Free in Hampstead and the UCLH in Euston.
‘The company want to introduce co-payment for the laboratory tests which would mean the patient would have to part pay for their own blood tests! This is totally unacceptable, the NHS must be free, we pay for it through our taxes anyway. We have to drive these private companies out of the NHS.’
Oliver Corke, of the NUT, who came down from Clapton Girls School to support the junior doctors said: ‘We wholeheartedly support the working conditions which uphold patient safety. That is why we support the strike. Patients need to be looked after and doctors need to be looked after as well.’
At the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, there was a mass picket with well over 50 supporters, members of other unions and junior doctors. Junior doctor Fiona Hansell said: ‘The massive support that we have had today just goes to show that we have gauged the mood very well. It is not just the medical unions that have come down to support us, but the non-medical unions are here as well. We have started the fight and the public will join the fight and so we have started a whole movement.’
Junior doctor Jessica Gale added: ‘The NHS staff are used to working in a multi-disciplinary fashion. We are all one NHS so we will all stand up for each other in support of the NHS. There has been no other option but to take strike action so that is what we are doing.’
Dr Hannah Marshal, working in Paediatrics, agreed. ‘This has been an absolutely last resort’ she said. We have to be united. This contract which the government is trying to impose on us is unsafe, it is not in the interests of patients, doctors or the NHS. Currently, if we work more than our rostered hours we flag it up and the Trust is fined. With the new contract this safeguard is removed.’
Aimay Mirdin, who is to become a Consultant in May, said: ‘I have been a junior doctor for the last 15 years. Essentially, I have been doing weekends and I have been doing nights. Junior doctors are the backbone of the NHS and a sure way to lose junior doctors is to make them work longer hours and to work harder. The number of times I have been on my fourth nightshift and I am so tired. I have almost fallen asleep at the wheel on my way home.’
There was a lively picket of junior doctors at Barnet Hospital. Dr Matteo De Martino, the BMA rep, told News Line: ‘I have been an obstetrics and gynaecology trainee doctor for four years and will be for a total of at least nine years. None of us wants to be here, it’s not something we feel 100% comfortable about but we recognise we have to do it.
‘If this contract is enforced then the only choice is to leave medicine or leave the country. No matter how much we love our job it is unfeasible and unsafe to provide a safe five-day, let alone seven-day service with extended hours, a 30% pay cut and no hours safeguards. The first line of attack is to drive doctors away, next create a vacuum for nurses and midwives by removing bursaries.
‘As the NHS becomes understaffed and overwhelmed the only workable option presented will be privatisation. It would be wonderful to have the support of other unions and many have already shown this.’
Simon Roth, a Consultant Paediatrician from the Baby Unit, came to give his support to the picket line. He told News Line. ‘I support the junior doctors’ action. The contract the government is seeking to impose is obscure and cynical, in keeping with their approach to undermining the NHS.’
Junior doctors held a very lively picket at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital where passers-by queued to sign their petition of support. Junior doctor William Hall told News Line: ‘I never thought I would strike, I’ve just finished an 80-hour week, this is my day off but it is so important to be here.’ Another junior doctor, Laura McGowan, said: ‘We are being asked to compromise too much of patient safety with this imposed contract.''
''Patients are right behind us, everyone is stopping to sign our petition to show their support,’ said junior doctor Owen Dineen. ‘We also have a lot of junior doctors leafleting and meeting the public at South Kensington Tube station, he said.
Car horns beeped in support of the junior doctors picket line outside Charing Cross Hospital on Fulham Palace Road. Desire Craneburough came to support the picket line and told News Line: ‘Junior doctors have been caring for patients since the start of the NHS and they’re not striking for money but for improved patient care.
‘They are here for us 365 days a year, day in day out, now I’m giving them my support. The Tories are breaking up the NHS with privatisation and we have to stop them.’
Doctors and supporters marched down Denmark Hill 50-strong, on the first day of the three days of strikes planned by the BMA to prevent Jeremy Hunt from imposing a contract which would destroy their conditions of work and the NHS.
Chris James, BMA Junior Doctors’ Representative at King’s College Hospital, said: ‘I don’t think there is any reason why we can’t come out on top in this struggle really. It’s a just cause we are fighting for. We are fighting for the future of the NHS. We are fighting against contracts that are unfair, unsafe and are starting to erode our NHS, which is free care for all and which is the right thing to happen.
‘We have the support of the public. They are behind us. We have to win this struggle, there isn’t any other option. The nurses are next. They led a magnificent march on Saturday, which I was at. The nurses are feeling it and I think that is going to filter through to the rest of the NHS as well.’
Asked if he thought that the rest of the unions should come out in a general strike in support of the junior doctors, James said: ‘I think if that is what it takes, and that is where it is going then “Yes”.’ Dr Fiona Humphries said: ‘We don’t want to strike for striking’s sake, but this government has shown its true colours, and that is something that we can’t stand for.
‘If that’s the route we have to go down ultimately – to essentially safeguard our society for future generations – then absolutely! We are here to fight contracts that are not safe and not fair. The government has got it wrong and has lost the trust of NHS employees.
‘We are here to protect the future of the NHS, because these contracts undermine the future of the NHS. I really hope Hunt capitulates. It is really sad that it has come to this that we have had to leave our patients’ in the capable hands of our consultants and come out here on strike. It’s a really difficult time’.
Dr Tom Pollak, Research Lecturer at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell, which specialises in mental health, said: ‘I think this government has been showing a lot of disdain for the electorate, and the junior doctors contract is just one of the ways they have done that.’
Dr Roxanne Keynejad, also out on the picket line added: ‘We are all junior doctors employed by south London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. We are all trainee psychiatrists and we, as one profession, are striking on a mandate by the whole junior doctor community in England over the contract that is threatened to be imposed on us in August of this year which is unsafe and unfair for patients.’
Pickets were out at St George’s Hospital in Tooting where banners were brought by Wandsworth NUT and Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Council. Junior doctors went out to campaign at Tooting Broadway underground station where they received overwhelming support.
Dr Sophie Herbert told News Line: ‘We are here because the government has ignored what we have said in negotiations and are threatening to impose a dangerous contract on us. We are understaffed and overworked and are already at breaking point.
‘I want to be able to tell my grandchildren that I fought to save the NHS. Joanne Harris, Unite Branch Secretary at Putney Bus Garage, who was there in support, told News Line: ‘Doctors deserve every bit of support they can get. The way the government is threatening them is appalling. The government has created this problem but then blames people when they go on strike.’
At St Thomas Hospital, by Westminster Bridge, there were 200 people picketing. A delegation of Nursing and Midwife students were there from Kings College. Mary Brown, a nursing student, told News Line: ‘We are here because we support the junior doctors. They have been very supportive of us in our struggles and, as professionals, we all work together.’ Dan Langley, another student, said: ‘If the Tories can upset some of the most conservative workers in the country, hopefully it will inspire others to fight against Tory austerity.’
At Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow there were 200 junior doctors on the picket lines.
Dr Attia Rehman said: ‘This new contract is completely unfair. If I was to do an on-call shift, I would get unsocial hours pay, but now they are treating it as an ordinary day which will mean a huge pay cut.’
Alex Thomson, a Northwick Park consultant, came to join the picket line. ‘I am fully behind the junior doctors. We also have a problem with our contract and the offer is going to a vote of the consultants. The future of the NHS is at stake.’
At North Middlesex Hospial about 40 docors and supporters picketed, and local junior doctor Jason said: ‘This is the first strike in 40 years, and of course doctors come from all political parties, and 98% of tens of thousands of doctors voted for this action. The contract on offer is unfair for doctors because it is asking them to work more unsocial hours for less pay, and it’s unfair for patients and public because the safeguards that stop us working long hours are being eroded. With the support of the public we will win!’
The News Line: Feature Thursday, 10 March 2016
Junior doctors determined to beat the Tories!
TENS OF THOUSANDS of junior doctors struck yesterday and many told News Line just how determined they were to stop the imposed contracts and to beat the Tory government.
At the closure-threatened Ealing Hospital bus driver and Unite member Kuga Kuna brought his dhol drum to support the doctors and a strong beat was kept up on the picket line all morning.
He said: ‘We need to keep our local hospital. The population is more and more in Ealing and they are closing our hospital. I’ve lived in Southall for over 30 years and my family, like so many others, completely rely on it.
‘The junior doctors are right to strike, they are fighting for all of us. We want to work together with all the unions, all of us must stand up. We want a general strike to win for the doctors and save our hospital.’
Student nurse and RCN member Kereen Blair said: ‘I think the doctors are working too many hours. If you are doing that you can’t perform.’ Speaking about the Tory government’s just-announced abolition of the bursary for student nurses, Kereen added: ‘It’s ludicrous. You’re doing a 40-hour shift already, so how can you top up your income?
‘I believe we need a general strike to support the doctors and defend the NHS.’
Striking junior doctor and BMA member Chen Lim said: ‘There are only so many doctors and the Tories are asking us to work two extra days. If they are going to roster doctors over the weekend where are they going to come from?
‘It takes five years to train a doctor. The logistics do not make sense. It’s a flawed plan, either intentionally or unintentionally. We spend 8.9% of our GDP on healthcare in the UK, Germany spends roughly 15%, we have about three doctors per thousand people, Germany has 5.9.
‘Nurses are now facing similar issues to us, with the abolition of the bursary, and nurses who are working aren’t actually paid very much at all. Certainly, we need to reach out to the nursing unions.’ Junior doctor and BMA member Salman Razzaki said: ‘It’s important to remember that even though it doesn’t necessarily feel like it, the power is in our hands.’
On a freezing morning with driving rain, junior doctors set up their picket at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, next to a large banner saying ‘NHS SOS’. They got a very warm reception from staff and patients. Dr Beth Gibson, Obstetrics and Gynaecology registrar, was on the picket line with her two infants. She said: ‘I’m here because I think this contract dispute is representative of the dismantling of the NHS. The only aim is to stretch services further for political reasons.
‘Patients will lose. Doctors will lose and we need to stop it here, before they take away our NHS free at the point of service. This is about privatisation. A seven day service for routine things is appealing, but would cost a lot of money.
‘I don’t know when he’s going to attack the other healthcare professionals, the nurses, phlebotomists, ultrasonographers etc, but then we can all fight together. The public need to get behind us, because we need the NHS for us and for our kids.’
James Rowson, BMA rep, said: ‘It’s a massive shame that they are imposing this contract. It shows total disregard for the health service, staff, patients and everyone in the country. They want to get away with forcing doctors to get the same amount of money for working seven days a week as working five. This will open up the doors to enforcing other member of staff to work similar dangerous shifts.
‘This is turning into a full-on assault on the NHS, not just the doctors. We don’t want to see the collapse of the NHS. Doctors must not back down. We need the support of allied staff from different unions.’
‘We would welcome any support from other unions to defend the NHS,’ Dr Frances Conti-Ramsden told News Line on the Royal Free Hospital junior doctors picket line yesterday morning. She said: ‘We are all extremely disappointed that the government have decided to impose unsafe and unfair contracts on us, without robust safeguards on overworking.
‘We are very disappointed that the government does not recognise out-of-hours working, including the non-resident on-call supplement. Morale is at the lowest it has ever been for the last 40 years as a result of this unilateral imposition. Sadly, many of my colleagues are wondering whether to remain in medicine, given the repercussions of this contract on our working life. We’re striking today to strongly oppose imposition and also to raise awareness of the privatisation by stealth that is becoming the reality across England.’
Fellow picket Dr Alison Berner said: ‘I’m striking because I think the cuts to junior doctors will be the first of many in the whole of the NHS. The only way to save it is to stand firm.’
Dr Leane Brown added: ‘I’m fighting imposition of our contract instead of negotiating properly. And we can’t have a seven-day service with five-day funds. This is not about pay or just about hours, it is about bullying and unsafe, untested changes. Everyone needs to pull together and fight for the NHS. We need all the support we can get from everyone.’
Royal Free junior doctors were joined by UCL medical students ‘roving pickets’. UCL medical student Joe Simpson said: ‘We’ve organised this touring picket to go to our main teaching hospitals – Royal Free, Whittington and UCH.’
Pickets of junior doctors were out in force at both King’s College and The Maudsley Psychiatric Hospital, on Denmark Hill Camberwell, south-east London. Jacob Bird, registrar at the Maudsley Hospital, said: ‘We do not endorse the imposition of this contract. In fact it’s oxymoronic, a contract is an agreement between two parties and we do not agree with this because we feel it is the beginning of the end for the NHS, and a road to a land that we don’t want to be part of. So we are striking today to protect patients, to protect the safeguards of working hours for us, and protect the future of the NHS.’
‘We appreciate all the support we can get because we are at the moment on our own. The trade unions have to make up their minds themselves, but we would like to get some back-up from unions like Unison, Unite and other unions like that but it is completely up to them.’
Dr Hannah Orrell, from King’s College Hospital said, ‘We believe in what we are fighting for. This is now our third strike, because the government are trying to impose a contract this year which will affect all the junior doctors, who are the majority of the workforce of doctors in the NHS’.
‘The contract to be imposed will not just affect our wellbeing and not be very fair for us but it will not be safe for our patients, so unfortunately this strike is necessary. Junior doctors aren’t traditionally militant people and I think this has all come as a bit of a shock, standing up for our rights, and joining the union the BMA. It has brought people together. We are realising that if the government won’t back down then we can’t back down either, and things will escalate.’
‘Today a few of us are going into other unions at a grass roots level, to talk to schools and to the TUC and other work-based unions to try to explain what we are doing. A lot of people in other unions are very clued up and are already on board. There should be discussions between the BMA and other unions and forming those links is important. That is something we should be calling for from the Junior Doctors Committee.’
Elizabeth Young, a junior doctor specialising in Maxillofacial surgery said: ‘I think the focus on the junior doctors contract at the moment is just the tip of the iceberg and it is going to spread out to other areas in the NHS, with other health care professionals.
‘If we don’t make a stand somewhere we are just going to let this situation continue and let them roll over us and allow the NHS to be dissolved on our watch. That would be just terrible so we have to stand together and oppose these changes. You know we are only at the beginning!’
Dr Chris James, an A&E doctor, said: ‘We have got to take the opportunity of this strike to make a development. I think what we are doing at the moment is good and the BMA are listening to their members, but I think we have to escalate this. There has to be an action with more than just junior docs. It has to be recognised that this is about privatisation of the NHS.
‘I think bringing out the other unions has to happen at some point. It is about bringing people out together for the wider case of the NHS, and if that means lobbying the TUC and general strikes, then we may have to go down that route.’
Sarah Williams, also from KCH A&E, said: ‘I think this struggle is going to be difficult and a long one. I don’t think the government are likely to back down any time soon. They think they have got the upper hand over us, but I think they are underestimating the power of 54,000 doctors that disagree with what they are trying to do.
‘The contract issues now are slightly less relevant. Everyone has begun to realise this is more a fight for saving the NHS. I think numbers is important, because if you are going against the whole population, there is no government that can win against that.
‘We need everyone out in support of the NHS rather than thinking it’s already dead and gone. The BMA has done a good job so far. It’s been listening to what its members are saying, but if we are not making any ground we will have to have a rethink of how we go forward. I think support from everyone is going to be key in this struggle and that is what we should do’.
Dr. Amin Ahmadiah, on the picket line at Barnet Hospital, said: ‘It is absolutely unacceptable, the contract that is being imposed. It will demoralise and already fatigued workforce. Rota gaps will become even more pronounced than they are now. Our patients will come to harm as a direct result of this contract and that is fundamentally unacceptable.
‘Our feelings are shared by nurses, midwives, police and the rest of the public sector. We should not be punished for helping the great British public. If this Tory government is so stubborn as to force this contract through, there will be no junior doctor workforce and more explicitly that means 54,000 fewer doctors in our NHS. We just won’t let that happen. Not a chance.’
‘I think the TUC needs to wait until this period of three 48-hour strikes is over. If in late April the government still hasn’t conceded then the TUC should call for a General Strike for the safety of the public. If we don’t oppose this contract, then we are not fulfiling our professional and ethical duty.’
At Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, there were lively pickets of junior doctors who received constant hoots of support from passing vehicles, particularly ambulance drivers. Arnold Patel told News Line: ‘The proposed contract is going to mean the already difficult rota is going to be even tighter.
‘The way we work it is very difficult to swop rotas, so we can’t attend important events like marriages, christenings, births deaths etc. I probably won’t be able to attend my own funeral! This is a backhanded way of the government shutting down the NHS.’
His colleague Amie Shah, said: ‘There is a big problem with patient safety. If the government put the contract in place they will move a lot of junior doctors from Monday-to-Friday to weekend working. They are stretching the existing workforce to cover more shifts.
‘We already have a recruitment problem because shifts are not being covered and we are already trying to cover the shifts not covered. They are stretching out a service that is already stretched. I am here because I feel passionately it will affect patient safety and also the health of doctors. I am already too tired to stretch me any further. For all the extra hours that I put in that I don’t get paid for, there is no such thing as “danger money”.’
‘All in all, this contract is detrimental to patient safety. The statistics about weekend working and the death rate that Hunt is putting out are incorrect. Why has he not been speaking to the junior doctors. The only thing that he is seen to do with them is to run away.’
At St Thomas’ Hospital, Westminster Bridge, there was a strong picket of doctor and their supporters. Dr. Naomi Wright, Paediatric Surgery Registrar, said: ‘There are a few major problems with the contract. We are already working to our absolute limit, in fact many hours over what we are rota’d for, for which we are not getting paid.
‘The new contract takes doctors away from work in the week and puts them on weekends. We don’t need extra registrars or consultants at weekends, we are covered.
‘But with the new contracts we would have an excess at weekends and not enough during the week.
‘The doctors who do most antisocial hours stand to lose the most money. We in Paediatrics get 50% extra because we work 25 hour shifts. The new contract would take that away and perhaps replace it with 11% This is completely unfair. I couldn’t live in London and have a child on the new contract, and neither could anyone on similar specialities.
‘The government produced figures on mortality, that are completely wrong. They chose the statistics that suited their purpose. If we proceeded like that in our work we would get struck off.’
Sarah Hallett, another junior doctor, said: ‘We have to stop the imposition. We will continue to escalate or action until we do. We have had good solidarity, from teachers, ASLEF and other workers.''
At St George’s Hospital in Tooting, Dr. Lisa Wallberg, a junior doctor and a member of National Health Singers, said: ‘I am Swedish by nationality. I am proud to be part of the National Health Service. I think it is a great system. It’s the best I have seen anywhere. and we have to defend it.’
Dr Sophie Herbert, A&E at St George’s Hospital, said: ‘We have escalated the action to a 48-hour strike because of the government’s imposition of the contract which is going to spread us more thinly and damage patient care. Ideally the government should go back to negotiate, but in practice they are destroying the whole public sector.’
Hannah Barham-Brown, final year medical student was on the picket supporting the doctors at St. George’s Hospital and said: ‘Cameron and his government have to realise that this is not going to stop.’ Rebecca Thom, a registrar, said: ‘The Tories have betrayed every worker in the country. I think we have to continue until this contract is defeated.’
At Hammersmith Hospital junior doctor Orhan Orhan said: ‘It’s incredibly important to keep up the pressure against this imposed contract. We have a duty to our patients to ensure a safe contract.’
Julia Prague, another junior doctor at Hammersmith told News Line: ‘We do not want to work for anyone other than the NHS because we believe in the principles of the NHS.
‘The danger of an enforced contract is that doctors will leave the NHS to work elsewhere. We don’t want to see the NHS privatised. Already, hundreds of millions of NHS services have been outsourced to companies like Virgin in Kent.’
Hammersmith midwife Shelley Thompson joined the junior doctors on the picket line and said: ‘Other unions should come out alongside the junior doctors before unsafe contracts are imposed on them. We are all part of a team.’
At Charing Cross Hospital car horns tooted their support for the striking junior doctors.
Junior doctor Lulu Ritch joined the picket even though she had just finished her night shift providing emergency cover.
‘I feel that Hunt is trying to make us break our own NHS from the inside by imposing a contract which is forcing us to take strike action because it is unsafe,’ she told News Line. Another striker Neeraj Kalra said: ‘We don’t agree with the imposition of a contract that has no real thought about current practices and how staffing numbers will be affected.
‘How can the same number of doctors provide a seven day service when we’re struggling to provide a service over five days? ‘We have to keep going and the strike will have to be extended and would welcome other unions coming out in support.’
At the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital junior doctor Ieuan Reece told News Line: ‘The new contract has unsafe monitoring of our hours and will result in us being overworked. I think the government has started with us because we only have a yearly contract, whereas other NHS staff have a fixed contract.
‘Obviously, if they can impose this on junior doctors they will try it on other NHS staff who will be hit harder by cuts in unsocial hours payments because their basic pay is lower.’
In Cambridge, a strong picket line of junior doctors and their supporters gathered outside the main entrance of Addenbrooke’s Hospital. There was a continuous stream of patients who expressed their support with the striking doctors.
Steven Bishop, a junior doctor working at Addenbrooke’s, told News Line: ‘We’re on strike because an unsafe and unfair contract has been imposed unilaterally by the government. This is not good for the future of the NHS and is not good for patients. It will seriously damage the morale of all NHS staff.
‘The government is pushing through their agenda of austerity. The short-sighted reducing of budgets and cutting of services in the long term will cause uncalculable damage to society. If the government succeeds in turning the NHS private, there will be no going back. This is the greatest care of healthcare staff and wider society as well. I have a friend in Wiltshire who tells me how the paediatrics there has been privatised, and many GP practices are private too. It’s terrible.
‘A general strike to support the junior doctors would be great. We need all the support we can get. At the moment public support for us is very high. We won’t give in, and we’ll force the government to back down.’
The News Line: Editorial Thursday, 10 March 2016
JUNIOR DOCTORS ARE DETERMINED TO DEFEAT THE TORIES
TENS of thousands of junior doctors struck yesterday and made it very clear that they are not a protest movement, and that their first two-day strike action, to be repeated on Wednesday 6th April and Tuesday April 26th, is part of the struggle to defend workers rights, to stop attempts to impose contracts and to defeat the Tory drive to privatise the NHS, and return Britain to some new ‘Dark Ages’.
One doctor told News Line: ‘It’s a massive shame that they are imposing this contract. It shows total disregard for the health service, staff, patients and everyone in the country. They want to get away with forcing doctors to get the same amount of money for working seven days a week as working five. This will open up the doors to enforcing other members of staff to work similar dangerous shifts.
‘This is turning into a full-on assault on the NHS, not just the doctors. We don’t want to see the collapse of the NHS. Doctors must not back down. We need the support of allied staff from different unions.’
Another observed: ‘We believe in what we are fighting for. This is now our third strike, because the government are trying to impose a contract this year which will affect all the junior doctors who are the majority of the workforce of doctors in the NHS.
‘The contract to be imposed will not just affect our wellbeing and not be very fair for us but it will not be safe for our patients, so unfortunately this strike is necessary. Junior doctors aren’t traditionally militant people and I think this has all come as a bit of a shock, standing up for our rights, and joining the union the BMA. It has brought people together. We are realising that if the government won’t back down, then we can’t back down either, and things will escalate …’
The junior doctors are ready for serious action! The fact is that they are fighting on behalf of the entire working class and middle class to defend the NHS, which has saved millions of lives during its short history, and defend trade union rights.
In this, the junior doctors do have the support of the entire working class for their struggle since everybody knows that, without the NHS, life would be hell. What they do not have is the support of the careerist trade union leaders, the types who start off on the factory floor and end up in the House of Lords as a reward for keeping the working class quiet.
In fact, the Tories are relying on these union leaders to keep the working class in check while the Tories fight it out with the doctors. This is what the union leaders did in 1984-85 when they assisted Thatcher by allowing the miners to fight alone. They must not be allowed to betray the struggle of the junior doctors in the same way, particularly as the privatisation of the NHS will condemn millions of workers to early deaths.
To win this struggle, junior doctors and the BMA must move the whole trade union movement into action to bring the Tories down. The BMA and the Junior Doctors Committee must make a public call for the TUC to bring all of its member unions out for the next 48-hour strike on April 6th. They must march on the TUC to demand that it takes action!
Local Councils of Action must be formed by the BMA, junior doctors, union branches, youth and community groups to bring all unions out on April 6th for two days of strike action in support of the junior doctors.
This will lay the basis for forcing the TUC to call an indefinite general strike to support the junior doctors and save the NHS. What is behind the current Tory attacks is the fact that the capitalist system is going through its greatest-ever crisis. It can only be saved by sacrificing the living standards, the health care and the basic rights of the working class and the middle class in a return to 19th century conditions.
This is why at the centre of defending the NHS is the struggle to get rid of out-of-date capitalism with a socialist revolution. Only the WRP fights for this policy and perspective. Join us today!
Update - a very nice black and white version of this photo was printed on page 3 of The News Line on Friday April 29 2016.
The News Line: News Wednesday, 27 April 2016 Massive doctors picket lines –answer the Cameron-Hunt threats
Unison leader PRENTIS with delegates from the Unison Health Conference joined the picket line at the Brighton General Hospital yesterday
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THE TUC must organise a national day of action in support of the junior doctors’ dispute and our NHS, the Public and Commercial Services union said yesterday.
The union’s general secretary Mark Serwotka wrote to the TUC yesterday afternoon to ask that the proposal is discussed at this morning’s general council meeting. The general council is the TUC’s ruling body. Yesterday morning hundreds of Unison delegates joined a march from the Brighton conference centre to join junior doctors on their picket line at Brighton General Hospital. The march was called by Brighton and Hove trades council and Sussex Defend the NHS. Delegates from the Unison Health Conference joined with other trades unions and community groups on a lively picket line outside the hospital.
Dave Prentis, Unison General Secretary, spoke and brought greetings on behalf of Unison. Local BMA rep and junior doctor Todd Leckie addressed the rally. He said: ‘Jeremy Hunt does not care about us and he does not care about the NHS. This is why we are on strike today, we do this with a heavy heart. If we do not oppose this contract we will not be able to care for our patients in the future. ‘That is why thousands of us are on strike today.’
He went on to thank Unison for their support and said a special thanks to the consultants inside who were covering for them. Speaking from the 200-strong picket outside Kings College Hospital, London, Dr Jack Granville in Respiratory medicine said: ‘I’m here on the picket line at King’s College Hospital oppposing the damaging, unsafe and unfair contract that Jeremy Hunt is wishing to impose on junor doctors.
‘I also want to oppose the government’s austerity agenda, cuts and privatisation.
‘The NHS in its current form is already struggling. King’s A&E Department had its worst winter ever. There were many unsafe situations created. The hospital was struggling to discharge people, with no beds in which to admit people.
‘That is a result of the government’s decimation of the social care budget due to cuts to councils, and is the consequence of the government attitude to health and social care.
‘People are losing their lives. I would support co-ordinated strike action by other unions if they were willing to engage with us. This government is a disaster for this country.’
Dr David Herbert said: ‘I’m a junior doctor, two years working for the NHS and I have seen conditions get worse and worse, not just for doctors, but nurses, health care assistants, phlebotomists, absolutely everyone, and for patients. We are all working under extreme pressure at the moment and this contract will make a situation which is barely manageable untenable in the future, so I am here striking for better conditions.
‘We need to retain talent and staff in this country. We need to value the staff properly, keep them happy and working for the NHS. I think this government is being childish. How can we have an elected government supposedly working for the good of this country, but who are refusing to engage with the wider body of doctors who work on the front line and who know what it is like to be on a ward at 3.00am, doing their best for their patients. I don’t understand how our elected representatives can behave this way. It is beyond reproach really.’
Dr Patrick said: ‘It is really a shame that the other unions like Unison and Unite have been so tentative in their commitment. The sea of opinion might change even more when the public realise that this strike action today – with the full walkout – won’t be to the detriment of people’s health.
‘It will be impossible to undo privatisation. Utterly impossible. The Labour Party should be rallying the unions and rallying the public. The Tories are getting away with absolute murder and it is left down to us and the public to drive the momentum. We really need more help and we need to get other sections of workers involved.’
Dr Benedict said: ‘I can’t imagine a whole body of doctors around the country all signing up to mass resignation as the next step. I personally think an indefinite walkout is the way forward. We need an option that brings the country to a standstill and that has a big ongoing effect. If we have a strike for 48 hours the consultants can come on board, and work harder to keep it going. If we have an indefinite walkout then great things can be achieved, and the Conservative government might be forced back to the negotiating table.''
Dr Colin Coulter said: ‘I am increasingly convinced that privatisation of the NHS is the goal here. Even today at The Royal College of Physicians, there were about 25 CEOs from private healthcare providers meeting to discuss the future of our healthcare. The narrative of our struggle needs to go bigger, because this is something that is going to affect radiographers, porters and everyone in the NHS.’
A large picket of over 50 doctors manned the picket line outside St George’s Hospital in Tooting. David Thompson, a surgical trainee, said: ‘Two people could have stopped this strike, Cameron and Hunt, but they chose not to.’
Sophie Herbert, junior doctor in General Medicine, said: ‘Hunt has refused to talk to junior doctors in public which seems very suspect. We believe he wouldn’t have a leg to stand on when confronted with the truth. He has failed to listen to our concerns that the contract will harm patients and instead he is just repeating his government’s spin and propaganda.
‘The government is hell-bent on destroying the NHS, which will do very real harm to patients. Hunt should drop the imposition of the contract and return to negotiate to the caring professions.’
Seema Jain, junior doctor at St George’s, said: ‘Safety is not being compromised while the strike is on. We have tried everything else. The government says the strike is political. Well it is political because the government is imposing a contract that will harm patient care. We are being treated like children.’
At St Thomas’ Hospital Sian Ashby, GP trainee, said: ‘We are quite determined we don’t want to work under this new contract. It affects staffing numbers and gender discrimination. We are not being listened to by the government. We have the support of nurses, physiotherapists and all the other health professions.
‘The PFI and the Health and Care Act, all these are pushing the NHS into privatisation.
James Connor, a GP who came down to London from Banbury to join the picket said: ‘I am here to voice our general concerns that the NHS is being run into the ground in order to justify privatisation.
‘We have the best, most efficient and most equitable healthcare system in the world.
‘This TTIP agreement will badly affect the health service. The government is intent on attacking the poorest and most vulnerable in society. This government has picked a fight with so many people that opposition is growing.’
At Northwick Park Hospital, where 200 pickets turned out, Sarah Krrar said: ‘I have been nine years a junior doctor and was six years a medical student. I have seen the deterioration of the service we have provided over the last five years because of the cuts. Cuts have coincided with a massive increase in demand for the service.
‘Last year, 30% to 40% of patients that I looked after were in hospital for social rather than medical reasons. They came into hospital initially for medical reasons, and they can’t go home because the care is not there. The NHS needs resources. There are massive staff and bed shortages, the current staff have worked flat out to keep the service afloat. Jeremy Hunt coming along and alienating the work force is complete madness. To imply that we are the barrier to expanding services is offensive.''
Junior doctor Elvis Adams said: ‘Jeremy Hunt has to back down. I hope 50,000 striking junior doctors outweighs the will of one man.’
Dr Jenny Abthorpe said: ‘Over 70,000 operations are cancelled every year because of lack of funding or beds. They only quote how many operations hae been cancelled on the day of our strike. On Christmas Day and bank holidays, hospitals have the same cover as the previous junior doctors strike days, however no one complains.
‘We are fighting for the future. We know what will happen in future if this contract goes through. We are not asking for a single penny extra on pay. I work seven nights and two weekends every four weeks. I don’t want to work more weekends or night shifts. Doctors’ mental and physical health is worse than it has every been. What type of NHS and what type of doctors so we want in the future?’
Junior doctors Kate Felton (paediatrics) and Jacob Ellis (child psychology) spoke to News Line amidst an animated group with strong opinions. Jeremy Hunt says that we are a block to a seven-day working contract. If you really want elective options at weekends then you need nurses and other staff as well. Can we afford that? We already work seven days!
‘We have an overwhelming lack of confidence in Hunt. He has shown no insight into the way the NHS works and his attitude is insulting to our intelligence. He cannot even say what seven-day working means; it is not sorted and no-one knows. Our union has, on the other hand, been very clear: if you stop the imposition then we will negotiate.
‘He has rejected a very fair offer from our union. How do you even model a contract when you don’t even know how many doctors you have got? There is already a massive loss of talent as people come up for retirement, leaving massive holes in the service, all aggravated by this imposition, which will make new doctors leave.
‘It costs a great deal of public money to train a junior doctor! We are trying to get Hunt to listen to us. Other unions have supported us. Unison has offered support because of pressure on public services, and the teachers have marched with us because of the imposition of academies. We are the first profession specifically targeted by the government. If we fail, then the floodgates open for other sections to be targeted.’
‘It’s ridiculous to impose a contract that compromises patient safety and puts further strain on an already stretched NHS,’ BMA rep Raj Shah told News Line on a lively picket line outside the Royal Free Hospital, northwest London.
Junior doctor Sofia Haddart said: ‘It’s a sad day that it’s come to this. We’ve tried a long time to avert this day but the government has left us with no choice.’
Nurse Kat Booth joined the picket line. She said: ‘I fully support these guys. I feel if the government imposes these contracts on the junior doctors, then nurses and all ancillary hospital workers will end up having their pay cut, working more hours and less flexible working time.’
BMA member Miles Gandolfi said: ‘Our strike is a protest against a contract the government is trying to impose. It’s something my colleagues and myself feel strongly about for a number of reasons. It’s not going to be fair for the doctors who would end up working much longer hours. You’d end up losing your extra pay for weekends. The contract already recognises it is unfair to female doctors, which is pretty shocking.’
BMA member Alison Berner added: ‘What we are doing today is really important for patient safety. We want a contract that’s safe for patients and safe for doctors to work in. It’s very sad it’s come to this and hopefully today will show the government how important this is and they will reconsider and come back to the negotiating table.’
On a well attended picket line at Barnet hospital Dr Amy Bowes told News Line: ‘At present I work in medicine for the elderly in my first year of training and it was disappointing to start my career in such a position and to have a health minister so insistent on imposing an unfair contract.
‘Although today has been very unfair for all of us we feel we’ve been backed into a corner and have no choice but to fight.We’re pleased our consultants are supporting us and patients will continue to receive a high standard of care.’
Katie Knight, BMA member on big picket at North Middlesex Hospital, told News Line: ‘Hunt has been wilfully ignoring all our efforts to speak to him. He’s ignored a cross-party attempt to form a last minute resolution and it’s as if he’s goading us into taking this action – he’s backed us into a corner. I think we need some assistance from the TUC. We appreciated the support we had on the last March particularly.’
Whipps Cross Hospital BMA rep Niki Fitzgerald told News Line: ‘We think very carefully about taking strike action. In our job we fill out risk assessments everyday. We have done our work on the risk assessment for this strike and have come to the conclusion that the risk to our future patients is higher than the risk put to patients during this current strike.’
Junior doctors Anita Chan said: ‘We are fighting for the future of the NHS. That is the essence of the message we are putting across. As a whole the service needs more staff, more resources, more funding before we are spread any thinner. Teachers, ambulance workers and other public service workers are fighting for the same thing and we should come out together.’
Martin Goodsell brought the East London, Unite Community banner, he said: ‘We support the junior doctors 100%. We are community activists engaged in housing and anti-eviction campaigns and against zero-hours contract employers.
‘All these campaigns must come together. The teachers and doctors should come out on strike together. We need an all-out NHS strike. This is about the unions working together to resist rivatisation and co-ordinate actions and strikes.’ Len Weiss, chair of the Unison Waltham Forest retired members branch, said: ‘We are here to support the junior doctors on their picket line.
The fight for the NHS and to keep it fair and safe is too important to give up,’ said Hammersmith Hospital junior doctor Julia Prague on the picket line yesterday.
Julia added: ‘All we get from Hunt is the same rhetoric.’ Natasha Rinne, a maternity services junior doctor at Queen Charlotte’s Hospital in Hammersmith, told News Line: ‘I was hoping to wake up this morning to hear that the strike had been cancelled, but instead woke up to hear health secretary Hunt telling the nation that the junior doctors are bullies. But to have a contract that is not safe for workers and patients imposed upon us shows us that the only bully is him.’
At Charing Cross Hospital in Hammersmith junior doctors were joined on the picket line by a group of consultants. Andy Forester, an orthopaedic consultant, said: ‘This truly is everyone’s fight. If this contract is imposed then everyone else will be next, from nurses to cleaners and other staff.’
Striking Charing Cross junior doctor Neeraj Kalra told News Line: ‘Hunt’s failure to negotiate shows just what sort of minister he is – he has lost the trust of the workforce. It’s just a backdoor attempt at privatising the NHS. Consultants can cover for a few days but if we escalate the action they won’t be able to cope.’
Ann Sturdy, an acute medicine junior doctor said: ‘Since I became a junior doctor four years ago we’ve always been short of beds, short of equipment and short of staff.
‘We regularly work two people’s jobs because there are not enough of us and this contract will make that much worse. At the moment we’re struggling to manage a routine service over the weekends.’
At the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital junior doctor in oncology, Ramya Ramaswami said: ‘The voice of 54,000 junior doctors is not being heard by this government who want to impose ideas that suit only a few people.’
At Ealing Hospital the striking doctors set up their picket alongside the West London Council of Action’s daily picket which is fighting against the closure of the Charlie Chaplin children’s ward and all children’s A&E services on 30th June.
Striking BMA member Donna Arya said: ‘We feel strongly that future generations should not have to work in an unsafe NHS. I appreciate that other unions are with us and support our fight.’
A&E doctor and BMA member Veronica Jones spoke about imminent planned cuts at Ealing Hospital, saying: ‘I think not having a paediatric A&E is of real concern because children will be turning up and if it is an emergency then they will have to be transferred to Northwick Park, which will lead to unnecessary delays which could be very dangerous.
‘There’s a lady here from the NUT and she agrees that we are all in the same fight.’
NUT member Sally Hackney said: ‘I think the TUC should call a general strike. This government is privatising all the professions and it has to be stopped.’
Trainee barrister Adam Marley joined the picket, saying: ‘The Tories want to pick off different sections, it’s a typical tactic, divide and conquer. The junior doctors must be joined by the whole trade union movement, they can’t sack everyone in the whole country. I would love a general strike, everyone out together.’
BMA striker Charlotte Bryant said: ‘The new contract would put patients at risk. There’s an expectation that there will be a seven-day NHS without more resources. In fact the doctors are already working seven days. We’ve shown a lot of unity in this struggle and we will carry on until we succeed in preventing the imposition of this disgusting contract.’