Junior Doctors in London took to the St Thomas hospital on Wednesday January 3 as part of the largest strike in NHS history, with doctors across the country taking part in a six day walk out.
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00:00 Junior doctors in London took to the St Thomas Hospital on Wednesday, January 3rd, as part
00:08 of the largest strike in NHS history, with doctors across the country taking part in
00:13 a six-day walkout.
00:15 Talks between the British Medical Association and the government were held towards the end
00:19 of 2023, but after five weeks, the talks broke down after the union was unsatisfied with
00:25 the offer.
00:26 So we're here today as part of a sequence of multiple strikes in order to restore the
00:32 pay that's been eroded over the last 12, 14 years.
00:36 Over 14 years, pay review bodies haven't increased our pay in line with inflation, so in real
00:41 terms we've had a pay cut.
00:42 And we're here just to try and restore that pay, and the only way we can do that in a
00:46 public sector employment is through striking at this point, after we've exhausted several
00:51 means of negotiation.
01:06 I think that songs is a way of communicating a feeling about how we feel sort of fairly
01:12 undervalued in our job, particularly when you compare ourselves to people in other countries
01:17 and some of the songs are about 'I'll go down under instead', saying 'go to Australia' because
01:22 you get paid more money there, you don't work so many hours.
01:26 I personally am not doing that, but I'm just saying that's the feeling that you get from
01:30 working here.
01:32 The Department of Health and Social Care posted a statement from the Health and Social Care
01:37 Secretary Victoria Atkins on ex-formerly known as Twitter to its 680,000 followers.
01:44 It said "January is typically the busiest time of year for the NHS, and these strikes
01:49 will have serious impacts on patients across the country."
01:53 She urged the BMA and Junior Doctors Committee to call off their strikes and come back to
01:58 the negotiating table so that both parties can find a reasonable and fair solution and
02:03 to end the strikes once and for all.
02:05 So far, strikes are set to last until 7am on Tuesday January 9th.
02:11 The message is to be open to having a conversation.
02:14 I think we're not going to achieve anything unless we discuss and have a conversation,
02:19 have a negotiation.
02:20 And I think we've had change in health secretaries and with that change comes an openness to
02:27 new ideas, new strategies.
02:29 I think we just need more dialogue, we need more of a bilateral conversation with these
02:35 people to just try and help get this mutually beneficial arrangement.
02:39 "I'll go down on Deveree's Day."
02:44 [Cheering]
02:48 (cheering)