Junior doctors in Hastings start 3-day strike

Staff were outside the Conquest Hospital picketing from 7am.

The strike action is part of a nationwide strike by British Medical Association (BMA) members, which runs until 7am on Saturday (June 17).

It is the third strike to take place due to a dispute over pay and is expected to lead to the cancellation of much routine care.

Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairs of the BMA Junior Doctors Committee, said: “Junior doctors are in despair at this Government’s refusal to listen. It should never have taken two whole rounds of strike action to even put a number on the table, and for that number to be a five per cent pay offer – in a year of double-digit inflation, itself another pay cut – beggars belief.

"We have made clear that junior doctors are looking for the full restoration of our pay, which has seen a 26 per cent cut.

“Junior doctors in England have seen their pay cut in real terms by more than a quarter over the last 15 years. Today, they are demonstrating what that means to the survival of the NHS. Junior doctors don’t expect the NHS to survive at the current rate. And they are right – it cannot survive without its most precious resource, its workforce.

"The NHS can only function with a workforce that is properly valued, and that is impossible when doctors are being told they are worth a quarter less than they were 15 years ago. When doctors say that the Government’s attitude is causing them to think about leaving the NHS, the Government has to listen.”

The NHS in Sussex is urging those who need urgent medical care that is not an emergency to support the NHS by using the right services for their needs during the industrial action.

Dr Dinesh Sinha, NHS Sussex chief medical officer, said: “Patient safety is our absolute priority. The local NHS has plans in place to limit the disruption to services as much as possible during the industrial action, however the public also need to play their part.

“We need people to use services appropriately and in particular to save emergency services for saving lives. A&E is for life-saving emergencies and to provide urgent help for people who may have become seriously ill, for example a stroke or a heart attack.

“If you need urgent health care, that isn’t a life saving emergency, there are a range of services available including minor injury units, urgent treatment centres, and NHS 111 – please help us help you.”