Stories from the picket lines — Nottingham

Junior doctors taking industrial action in Nottingham received huge support from the public and other NHS professionals. A group of around 80 formed a picket line outside the Queen’s Medical Centre from 8am until the early afternoon. Among them was Darren Chan (pictured above, right), a foundation doctor 2 from the City Hospital doing rotation at a GP surgery in Hucknall, who said: ‘We’ve been having a lot of people tooting their horns as they go past and a generally very positive response from the public. ‘Allied health professionals and nurses have also been coming up and telling us to keep it up because it’s a fight that has to be won for everybody.’ Dr Chan believes that the government needs to act swiftly and constructively to resolve the situation. He said: ‘It’s very disappointing that [health secretary] Jeremy Hunt is being so difficult and that we have to be out on strike — but it’s about safety so we are morally obliged to be doing this. ‘All that needs to happen is for him to put forward a serious set of proposals that are workable, sustainable and safe.’ ‘The sad thing is that there are many junior doctors at the moment who are sitting on the fence about whether to stay in the country. What the Government is doing could well persuade them to leave.’ During the afternoon a group of juniors went to the city centre to stage a ‘meet the doctors’ event where they expected to...
Source: BMA News - Category: UK Health Source Type: news