00:00Julian, what exactly are these system-wide failures that are present within the NHS that affects doctors?
00:05There's a lot of factors that are still in there which are causing problems.
00:09It can be something as simple as not enough chairs for doctors to sit down on so they can work.
00:14There's talk about doctors sitting on bins to try and do work.
00:17There's problems with the estates, so the actual buildings and the amount of rooms and things you can do.
00:22There's understaffing in some areas as well.
00:25And all of that contributes to an overall problem.
00:27And as far as junior doctors are concerned, one of the biggest things is that a lot of them are facing unemployment or problems moving up their career ladder.
00:36They can be doing two or three years and then suddenly being told, no, there's no further training you can have because there's not enough places.
00:42So all of that contributes to the problems that are building up.
00:46I see. And we've got flu season coming up around the corner.
00:48Do you think these strikes are really going to hit patients hard?
00:51I think for emergencies, all the way through the strikes, there's been cover provided.
00:55And ultimately, if a hospital is in real trouble, then they can apply to the BMA and people will actually go back in and work.
01:03The bigger impact is on routine care.
01:05And this time round, the message went out from the centre that hospitals should try and provide virtually all the routine care they do normally,
01:12whereas before they were cancelling it.
01:15And that's why fewer people are going to have that thing where they get a phone call saying,
01:18sorry, your appointment's cancelled or you can't be admitted.
01:21And in fact, if people haven't heard anything like that over these next five days,
01:25then they should still go in because the likelihood is their appointment will still be there.
01:30And it's not just resident doctors.
01:32It's also health consultants and other people within that sphere.
01:35Do you think that that speaks to the kind of levels of frustration across all levels of the NHS?
01:40Yes, slightly different disputes in the sense of the junior doctors are asking for significantly more money.
01:47In the case of the consultants, it's actually about 1% to 1.5% more than the offer they've got.
01:52So it's not breaking the bank, but they're concerned because actually the offer they're getting is barely inflationary.
01:58And so what's happening is they're starting to fall back.
02:01The junior doctors, they're facing really quite a significant drop,
02:05even with the good pay rise they got last year, compared with 10, 15 years ago.
02:10I see. And with the majority of resident doctors voting against strike actions,
02:14do you think that shows kind of any major divisions within BMA?
02:17I think it's not that they voted against.
02:20It was the combination of people who voted against and the people who didn't vote or weren't BMA members
02:26means that actually a minority of resident doctors have voted for strike.
02:30It would be interesting to see at the end of these five days,
02:32to see what percentage of the total resident doctors did strike.
02:37Because clearly if it's a very low number, then the impact of the strike is going to be lower
02:41and that's not going to be good for the BMA.
02:43I see. Well, thank you so much for bringing us all this latest news.
