The Junior doctors committee co-chairs Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said they're working hard to make a fair deal whilst avoiding strike action but this has obviously not panned out. The government have failed to solve many peoples real problems and I feel we can only see the resulting strain put on nurses, senior doctors and the NHS as a whole is the governments fault.
The British Medical Association said the government failed to meet the deadline they set for an improved pay offer. Striking seems inevitable when there is no agreement.
Care will be affected and has been over the last year, since March there has been over ten strikes. The NHS has stated that people will have to wait for appointments or treatments they've already been waiting months for. The average wait time for a non-emergency appointment in hospital is eighteen weeks. The NHS needs more staff, more money and more support from the government or it it simply going to run itself into the ground. Surely it's time to give a little and allow junior doctors the finances they so clearly need.
Junior doctors earn, on average, £34,790 a year (which admittedly to a university students sounds a lot) but consider their insanely long hours, the constant mental and physical toll and the cost of living crisis (to mention a few things) and you end up with quite a bleak picture.
All in all it feels like the government needs to step up, take responsibility and support the national institution that is the NHS or see it crumble under its own weight.
