DOCTORS in England on Thursday (13) staged the biggest walkout in the history of the UK's state-funded National Health Service, prompting fears for patient safety. The unprecedented five-day stoppage over pay and staff retention is the latest in eight months of industrial action across the NHS, which is already reeling from a vast pandemic backlog.
It’s different for doctors and nurses. We have moral and legal obligations to our patients. Giving an end date is often the first attempt. Indefinite strike is always an option that can be deployed later, if necessary.
Plus we’re always in a precarious situation with the public. It’s easy for a doctor’s strike to lose public support, which results in things like strike breaking laws being passed.
There are different ways of striking that can be effective.
Healthcare providers in general, but doctors especially have a sense of duty to their patients regardless of work conditions which are often unacceptable for both. One workaround I’ve seen mentioned for doctors in particular is to continue working, but stop making notes in the EHR or submitting billing which tends to get admins attention real quick without impacting patient care.
That sounds a lot like the Japanese transit protests. The lines still ran as normal but they refused to collect payment. Nobody impacted but the transit lines.
That’s a good system. It puts the consequences squarely where they belong, and only where they belong.
Most such tactics are explicitly illegal in the UK, unfortunately. Basically, the legal framework for labour strikes in the UK is set up to maximise inconvenience to the public and minimise the tools (and effectiveness of those tools) available to the workers and their unions.
stop giving an end date to your strikes for fuck sake
It’s different for doctors and nurses. We have moral and legal obligations to our patients. Giving an end date is often the first attempt. Indefinite strike is always an option that can be deployed later, if necessary.
Plus we’re always in a precarious situation with the public. It’s easy for a doctor’s strike to lose public support, which results in things like strike breaking laws being passed.
There are different ways of striking that can be effective.
aye, fair enough. Pardon my ignorance
Thanks for understanding and being willing to learn new things. Cheers
♥️
Healthcare providers in general, but doctors especially have a sense of duty to their patients regardless of work conditions which are often unacceptable for both. One workaround I’ve seen mentioned for doctors in particular is to continue working, but stop making notes in the EHR or submitting billing which tends to get admins attention real quick without impacting patient care.
That sounds a lot like the Japanese transit protests. The lines still ran as normal but they refused to collect payment. Nobody impacted but the transit lines.
That’s a good system. It puts the consequences squarely where they belong, and only where they belong.
Most such tactics are explicitly illegal in the UK, unfortunately. Basically, the legal framework for labour strikes in the UK is set up to maximise inconvenience to the public and minimise the tools (and effectiveness of those tools) available to the workers and their unions.
That’s not by accident either.