Junior doctors walk out for second day in pay row across Suffolk
It's part of a walkout, totalling four days, which centres around a dispute over pay and conditions
Last updated 12th Apr 2023
Junior Doctors are walking out for second day in a row across Suffolk and beyond.
It's part of a walkout, totalling four days, which centres around a dispute over pay and conditions.
Picket lines are being held at the West Suffolk and Ipswich Hospitals.
Health leaders are warning that this on-going industrial action is some the most disruptive ever seen in the NHS' history, with estimates that 350,000 appointments could be cancelled across the country because of these strikes.
....
Dr Emma Vallis Booth is a Junior Doctor in the East:
"I know people who have left medicine, those who have burnt out and gone on long-term medical leave. I know people who have left the country to work and I know two doctors who have taken their own lives.
"I see there being more rota gaps and others struggling to fill those, but really wanting to support their colleagues.
"I see people having to leave for their own mental health or not, and then their mental health getting the better of them. I don't want that for myself, my colleagues or my patients.
"I've had time off for my mental health and actually I'd say that more than 50% of junior doctors suffer with a mental health problem which is created or exacerbated by their work.
"Parking here is £30 a month if you can get it. I'm not eligible because I live too close but that means that even after a night shift I'm having to make my own way home.
"One of my colleagues when they moved to work here was told they lived too close, they live in Bury St Edmunds- how are they going to get here at 7:30 in the morning?"
What has the Government said?
The Health Secretary, Steve Barclay says his "door is open" if striking junior doctors want to begin meaningful negotiations to reach a 'fair and reasonable settlement'
He says the British Medical Association's demand for a 35% pay rise is "unreasonable" and "unfair".