Thanet campaigners turned out to support striking staff at QEQM Hospital on Tuesday (29th July).
Across the UK resident doctors have been on strike, calling for better pay and working conditions. The staff, formerly known as junior doctors, were last on strike two years ago.
The name was changed to reflect that many have up to 20 years experience and are central to the running of the NHS.
Rachel Hallam (pictured above), resident doctor at QEQM, said: “Resident doctors have faced a pandemic, a crisis in corridor care and we provide for our patients in a system riddled with pressures exerted on us by non-clinical managers.”
The doctors’ union, the BMA (British Medical Association) is asking for pay to be ‘restored’ to the level it was in 2008. Taking inflation into account Rachel says that wages are down 25% on 20 years ago.
She added: “It’s demoralising that many doctors are paid the same as the physician assistants whose work they have to oversee.
“Its not surprising that the NHS is haemorrhaging staff to work overseas or in other careers. When we are told that we are greedy I would point to the private companies now involved in NHS care and the profits they make that are eating into NHS funding.
“The government could scrap or renegotiate PFI contracts and save billions.
“We care about our patients but we know our worth and we hope that other colleagues in healthcare will follow our example.”
Retired nurse Candy Gregory, from local campaign group SONIK (Save Our NHS in Kent), said: “It’s not surprising that doctors leave when they’re being offered three times their salary and better working conditions in other jobs.
“We are happy to join the picket lines to support our hospital doctors, and join the many other organisations like the Green Party, the RMT and North East Kent Trade Union Council to try to show the government how vital our doctors are. We are doing it for us as much as for them.”
Continuous industrial action – day and night – started at 7am on Friday 25 July and finished at 6.59am today (July 30).
