Junior doctors on strike in Liverpool say they are 'fighting for the future of the National Health Service.'
Today marks the second day of a four-day walk-out of junior doctors at hospitals across the country. It is the second such strike in an increasingly bitter row between the British Medical Association (BMA) and the government over pay and conditions.
The length of this strike is likely to cause major disruption in the NHS, with bosses suggesting 350,000 appointments and operations could be cancelled.
The BMA says the salary of junior doctors has fallen by 26% over the past 15 years and is calling for a 35% rise to bring salaries back to 2008-9 levels and compensate for what it says are 15 years of below-inflation increases.
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For doctors on the picket line outside the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in Liverpool today, this is about more than their personal pay packets - it's a fight for the very future of the National Health Service.
Junior doctor Alex Batty said: "We're out on strike for full pay restoration and with that comes improving morale and conditions for junior doctors. This is a tough job that has only got tougher over the past 15 years in which we've seen a real terms pay cut of 26%. We feel that action needs to be taken now to safeguard the future of the profession."
Speaking about the pressures faced by himself and his colleagues, Dr Batty added: "On a typical shift for a junior doctor in A and E and acute medicine in particular, if they are not on a fully staffed rota, they are pulled in all different directions.
"There can be any number of emergencies at any one time and at the moment there is just not enough staff, not enough junior doctors because of the pay and conditions in the NHS, people are leaving and that isn't going to change without an improvement in pay and conditions and the situation for patients will only get worse.
"We are trying to protect the future of the NHS. What we are seeing at the moment, how stretched we are - this is unsustainable."
Dr Eleanor Gartside, an junior doctor in oncology at Clatterbridge said the support from the people of Liverpool had been strong - with fellow staff members and patients on side.
She said: "The reception has been positive, with lots of honks from cars but also support from patients and staff going into the hospital.
"This is a cancer hospital and we have seen patients going on for chemotherapy and radiotherapy who have been really supportive, which is really nice.
"We don't want to be here, we don't want to be on strike - but we feel like we have to be because if we don't do anything now then pay will only get eroded more and demand will keep going up. This is a fight for the NHS as a whole, for our colleagues in A&E and for the junior doctors just coming out of medical school. This is for everyone."
So far the government has refused to enter negotiations with the BMA over the dispute. Dr Gartside added: "It is demoralising to hear them continue to call us unreasonable, which is easy for them to say when they have had a pay rise every year since 2010. There needs to be some negotiation but they seem unwilling to even entertain that at the moment."
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