Hundreds of junior doctors are again on strike at Nottinghamshire hospitals as a dispute with the Government over a new contract rumbles on.
Dozens of operations at the Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham City Hospital, King’s Mill and Newark Hospitals are expected to be cancelled along with hundreds of out patients appointments.
In total 262 outpatient appointments and 27 operations have been cancelled because of the strikes at the QMC and City Hospital.
There were a further 100 cancellations between King’s Mill Hospital, Newark Hospital and Mansfield Community Hospital. All cancellations have been rearranged for a later date.
Check ups and tests will be disrupted however emergency care will not be affected during the walk-out, which started at 8am and lasts for 24 hours.
It follows a similar protest in January and comes after talks between the Government and the British Medical Association (BMA) broke down.
Junior doctor Jessica Gates said: “It’s a shame that we have had to come to a second walk out but its something we are standing up for as we believe passionately that this new contract will affect patient care and we want to stop it going through.”
Medics are holding demonstrations outside both Nottingham hospitals and at a rally in Old Market Square.
junior doctors are very disgruntled
A BMA statement read: “Despite the best efforts of the our negotiating team, major sticking points, including around the classification of Saturdays, remain.
“Because we have not managed to reach agreement with NHS Employers and the Department of Health on the new junior doctors contract, junior doctors will be taking industrial action for 24 hours.”
Hospital trusts say all patients affected by the strike were informed earlier in the week and have had their treatments re-arranged.
Junior doctor, Sven Watmore, said: “I think it is frustrating that the talks haven’t made progress, I think most junior doctors are very disgruntled with how the NHS and junior doctors are being portrayed by the government.”
A Department of Health Spokesman told the Guardian: “It is regrettable that the BMA is proceeding with further unnecessary industrial action,” adding they believed talks were close to reaching a deal.
What are junior doctors striking about?
The long-running dispute is between the BMA and the government over the planned introduction of a new contract.
There are currently 55,000 junior doctors in England, 38,000 of those are members of the BMA.
The main sticking points are the scrapping of guaranteed pay rises linked with time in the job and the scrapping of unsociable hour pay between 7am and 10pm on every day apart from Sunday.
The BMA argues this will mean junior doctors will get paid less whereas government ministers argue that the increase in basic pay will mean three quarters will actually get paid more.
