Doctor, Doctor

Dominic Lawson writing in The Sunday Times had an interesting take on the looming junior doctors strike in the NHS.

Whether you support the doctors action or not, the killer comment comes from Dr A (an ex-practioner with family members in the profession who observes: "And both sides are shroud-waving when this is a bog-standard industrial dispute about money".

What it boils down to is that the junior doctors want to be paid more for agreeing to work additional weekends when patient outcomes and mortality rates within the NHS are at comparatively poor, compared to those admitted and treated Monday to Friday. 



http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/comment/columns/dominiclawson/article1654262.ece 

Doctor, doctor, I keep working at weekends. Should I go on strike?



One of the joys of writing this column is the response I get directly from Sunday Times readers. You are never — and I mean never — abusive, and the emails I receive are often from professionals who are vastly more knowledgable than I am on the subject matter of the week’s column.

This occurred — and on an unusual scale — in November when I wrote about the projected industrial action by junior doctors. The column went under the headline “Junior doctors invoke patient safety, but this strike is all about money”. The response from a number of Sunday Times readers in the medical profession was trenchant.

Since that strike action, having been suspended, is now almost certain to begin on Tuesday, this seems a perfect opportunity to give you an idea of what they said to me (and of my replies).