I’ll tell you why junior doctors are striking: things are so unsafe we have no choice

‘Doctors are coming into work worried about money, worried about keeping warm: they’re not going to be making excellent decisions.’ Junior doctors protest in Trafalgar Square, London, on Tuesday. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Four in 10 junior doctors in the UK plan to leave if they can find another job. In emergency medicine we all know colleagues who are talented and dedicated, the sort of doctor who you’d want to treat your nan – and who are now working in Australia.

I’m striking because in emergency medicine, things have become so unsafe it is not tenable to continue. One of the reasons is staff shortages, because doctors aren’t paid enough.