Doctors go on strike

Wednesday, 27 June 2012 10:35

Written by Editor

Last Thursday the BMA?reported that around 100,000 doctors, or 70% of doctors across the UK,  were going on strike for the first time in 37 years (1975 was the last time) despite attempts by government ministers to dissuade them. One patient, Raymond Grade, described the doctors as “pampered” adding that, unlike a lot of people, they already had guaranteed high pensions.
Dr Lawrence Buckman said that they were taking action because the government has failed to leave their pension scheme alone despite an agreement made in 2008.
Many operations and appointments had to be cancelled. Emergency services were available but regular appointments etc were affected. People who had been waiting months for non-urgent operations such as joint replacements now face another wait in pain.

The Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “We have been talking for over a year for a pension scheme that was fair to the tax payer and everyone else.  But the BMA accuses government of asking for an ‘unfair’ scheme with doctors being asked to work more and pay more.” From April 2012 a high paid doctor may be paying 9% into the scheme with tax relief bringing it down to 6%. Their final earnings pensions scheme for doctors meant they were getting double from the NHS than nurses etc. An increase of 3,2% across the board in the NHS has to be met due to the extraordinary economical circumstances at the moment. Roughly half the doctors in general practice would get £100,000 a year and consultants getting £150,000 a year. A junior doctor starting out now under the new scheme would get the equivalent of £68,000 a year. They are also being asked to retire later.

Up to 1.5 million GP appointments were cancelled, 30,000 operations, 58,000 diagnostic tests and 200,000 out-patients appointments.Some tweets asked “what happens to those whose appointments are cancelled and an early sign of cancer is missed? It is playing politics with people’s lives.” Accident and emergency departments as well as maternity departments remained working as usual. Doctors surgeries were open but mostly to re-arrange appointments with the exception of emergency cases as, for example in a surgery of six doctors, one may have been on duty. However, another estimate said that only about 20% had actually gone on strike, far fewer than the predicted 70%.