A former NHS Consultant has said he does not believe his generation of junior doctors would have supported the strikes because of the risk it will cause patients.
Speaking to GB News, Dr. Tom Goodfellow, a retired NHS consultant radiologist said:
“[The picket lines] are not fitting at all and I must admit I found the whole thing very disturbing.
“I think a lot of the problems have been directly as a result of the BMA’s (British Medical Association) activities.
“It’s not just the pay. It’s also the whole aspect of training and how they work. In 2009, the European Working Time Directive was introduced and implemented with full BMA support and that was a disaster.
“Because when I trained, when I was a junior doctor, we worked in firms and teams, with consultants, registrars, housemen: it was very supportive.
“We had good accommodation, good support and we felt valued.
“With the Working Time Directive, suddenly they’re all on shift work and suddenly, they’re not part of the team.
“They’re often feeling isolated, unsupported, abused and directed by managers.
“They have no ongoing knowledge of the patients because they’re on shifts, and so they don’t know the patients and the patients don’t know them.
“The whole continuity of care is lost, and that’s been a disaster.
“The BMA has done absolutely nothing to alleviate this situation. It was obvious that this was going to happen and quite clearly, the BMA and the government should have been addressing these issues – not just to pay but also the whole way they work.
“For example, a few years ago, the BMA were in the High Court, with the government, against their own junior doctors to impose a contract, which the junior doctor did not want.
“And that’s caused huge damage. loss of professionalism – I can barely know what to say about it. It was a dreadful decision.
“My generation, I think we would have struggled to support this strike, because this was really ingrained into us: Make the care of your patient your first concern.
“People are going to die because of this strike. And though I’m very sympathetic to the case of the doctors – I think that have a case – this is too far.”
