As many as 61,000 junior – or trainee – doctors are staging a 72-hour stoppage that started at 7am on Monday, in pursuit of a 26% pay rise.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay has been accused of ’emotional blackmail’ when he told BBC News that junior doctors should “Check your conscience before you go on strike.”
Also writing in the Sunday Telegraph, the health secretary said “this presents a real risk to patient safety, which should pose difficult ethical dilemmas for our hard-working junior doctors”.
A new video by Peter Stefanovic has laid into Barclay’s comments.
‘Don’t Mess With Our NHS’
Steve’s calls appears to have been ignored as demonstrators carried placards declaring ‘Don’t Mess With Our NHS’ and ‘We Support NHS Workers’ as the march made its way from University College London Hospital to Downing Street.
Dr Tony O’Sullivan, founder of the SOS NHS coalition, which organised yesterday’s march, said: “There is a tragedy unfolding before our very eyes.
“500 avoidable deaths every week on the NHS emergency pathway. The government is 100% to blame.
“I have never seen such a crisis of low morale amongst health staff – pay NHS staff properly now and repair this current crisis.”
Watch
Peter shared the video and wrote: ““Check your conscience before you go on strike” @SteveBarclay tells junior doctors Junior doctors are not worth 25% less today than they were in 2010 RT if you think it’s the Health Secretary who needs to check his conscience #IstandWithJuniordoctors.”
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Related: Health Minister’s claims about Junior doctors strike slammed in viral video
