Tomorrow is Industrial Action Day

For years I have said that nothing would ever bring me out on strike. I am a doctor, a professional, dedicated to the population I serve. I would never put self-interest above the needs of my patients. Yet tomorrow I am preparing to take the, admitted very limited, industrial action called by the BMA. Why? What has caused this change of heart?

I must first say that it is only very peripherally to do with the actual pension, although I believe that doctors have been treated appallingly. The things that have made me decide to withhold my labour are:

1.    The NHS has been decried, vilified, and disorganised to within an inch of its life. The Government that got elected at least partly on a ‘no top down reorganisation of the NHS’ betrayed us quite deliberately and has set in motion changes that will not work and that will undermine the very ethos of the NHS.

2.    Public Health has been particularly badly treated, with a wholesale shift into Local Authority, fragmentation of the work force, and a total disregard for health services public health.

3.    The pensions point has been spun to a point that can only be called dishonest. The taxpayer (of which I am one) does not ‘pay for our pensions’, we do. We make contributions and have agreed to bear any increased costs. The pot is healthy and easily sustainable. There is no pensions crisis for doctors. This is pure politics, and is grossly unfair because it is not being applied to other public sector workers like Senior Civil Servants and Government employees, all of whom have similar arrangements but whose contributions have not increased and who are not facing a real cut in pensions.

In short, I am angry at the unfairness, the disregard for those of us who have given a lifetime to the NHS. And I can think of no other way of making these points. So, I apologise in advance to anybody who feels disadvantaged tomorrow, but I shall be taking industrial action.