THE junior doctors’ strike is causing huge damage to the NHS, according to a former NHS Trust chairman.
Roy Lilley told GB News: “The BMA has had some informal talks. I mean, I think they’ve tried to keep the show on the road. The difficulty is, of course, that the Prime Minister has said we’ve accepted the Pay Review bodies recommendations. So, we’re now kind of boxed in by saying there will be no more talks. The junior doctors are balloting to extend their strike action. It’s just horrendous and is doing huge damage to the NHS by adding to waiting lists. And of course, there’s a whole load of people that are sort of invisible collateral damage to this.
“So, this is doing a lot of damage. It’s absolutely shredding the administration of hospitals too because every time there’s a strike 70,000 people have to be contacted. You have to make absolutely sure they are protected, and they don’t turn up on the day because they’ve missed a letter or something. Then somehow or other the NHS has to find a way of getting 800,000 people back on the way to get off the waiting list and back to the front of the queue. It’s a nightmare.”
Meanwhile Dr Peter Carter, the former leader of the Royal College of Nurses, said doctors deserved at least a 10 per cent pay rise.
He said: “I think it’s incumbent on the government to be prepared to say okay, let’s get together, let’s have a rethink. How can we find a way forward?
“It started with austerity back in 2010. That went on for far too long. And that underinvestment meant the chickens are coming home to roost. Now, I would say that the decent thing to do is to get the doctors in, I would offer them a 10% pay rise. That still wouldn’t be anywhere near what they were asking for. But I think that would be a reasonable offer. And the Institute for Public Policy and Research estimated that if all health workers had had a 10% pay rise, it would have made a minuscule impact on inflation. But by golly a 10% pay rise would do so much to first of all settle the current dispute, but would have done so much to help morale across the board to all health workers, not just the doctors.”
