Tuesday, September 26, 2023

UK
'Tory refusal to negotiate in NHS strikes shows they don't care about our lives'

I support the doctors but ordinary people are affected by strike paralysis, unlike Tory ministers who go private, says Paul Routledge


Steve Barclay outside Number 10 recently 

Paul Routledge
21:21, 21 Sep 2023

If the NHS is in trouble, Tory politicians can be absolutely relied upon to make it worse.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay threatens to impose “work notices” on striking hospital doctors, forcing them to leave picket lines for the wards. If they refuse to comply, they could be sacked, or their union fined heavily. Blustering Barclay announced his crackdown on junior docs and consultants during their first co-ordinated walk-out, which ends today.

It’s now more than 180 days since ministers met the medics union BMA to talk about pay. This dangerous conflict has lasted 10 months and cost the NHS £1billion. From the Prime Minister down, the official line is “No negotiations. This dispute is over”. Except that it isn’t, and it won’t be until arrogant Tory politicians accept that they have to talk and achieve a deal.

More strikes are planned next month, while waiting lists surge beyond a record 7.7 million, operations and appointments are cancelled and the nation gets sicker. We all have skin in this game, literally. Our new great-granddaughter, aged three months, has been in intensive care in Leeds General Infirmary for the last week.

My appointment with the cardiologist at Airedale General on a strike day this week was cancelled and re-scheduled for mid-October. I’ve no idea what’s in store. We are utterly reliant on the NHS. All of us that is except the rich and Tory politicians, who go private and haven’t the faintest idea what life is like for ordinary folk.

I can’t wait to explain it to them, with a simple X on a bit of paper. Meanwhile, I say this to the medics – do your best, and I support you. But remember there is no shame in conceding defeat in a battle with the state. It is more powerful than any group of workers. Shame hangs round the neck of the politicians, not the strikers.


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