Junior doctors from Ealing and supporters march and protest over pay

Members of Ealing Save Our NHS supported the large rally and march which sees the junior doctors on strike for four days which started from yesterday (11 April 2023) and lasts until 14 April 2023.

Eve Turner from Ealing Save Our NHS told EALING.NEWS: “We were proud to support the junior doctors at their London Rally. In reality they’re striking to save the NHS, which has been hopelessly underfunded in recent years to the point that front line staff are just walking away.

Ms Turner added: “The doctors totally deserve their pay to be restored. Nowadays they even have to pay for their own training, so when they qualify they’re already in debt. Its just tragic that health workers have been driven to take strike action by a Government that’s obviously in denial about the extreme crisis of our NHS.”

In its response to recent comments made by the Health Secretary claiming that the junior doctor pay restoration ask is unreasonable and the reason he will not engage in discussions, British Medical Association (BMA) junior doctor committee co-chair Dr Vivek Trivedi said:

“We were knocking on the Health Secretary’s door, asking to meet with him to negotiate a settlement to this dispute, long before the current strike got underway. We have been in a formal dispute since October. He refused to respond and meet us until we had a strike ballot result. He has had months to put a credible offer on the table and avert industrial action so for him to say ‘it’s disappointing’, is at best disingenuous.

“We have always maintained our aim is for full pay restoration – to reverse the more than 26% real terms pay cuts Mr. Barclay’s government have imposed on us over the past 15 years putting starting salaries up by just £5 per hour to £19. We have always maintained we are willing to negotiate on how to achieve pay restoration, so for Mr. Barclay to suggest we had any preconditions is yet again disingenuous.”