Our junior doctors should get back to looking after us all

DESPITE the Labour government making concessions on some of their demands, junior doctors will still strike this week for five days during the busiest time of the year for hospitals.

- Tim Newark

Not content with getting huge amounts of taxpayers’ money over the entirety of their careers, they want even more, even if it puts patients at risk.

Junior doctors, who were recently re-branded as resident doctors, have already had pay rises amounting to 29% over the past two years, far above their NHS colleagues, especially nurses. But they still want more — an extra 26% to be precise, claiming they need it to keep up with inflation. Well, we'd all like that, but in the private sector we consider ourselves lucky not to have our pay cut thanks to the flat-lining economy.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has already raided our pockets for yet more tax to pay for her benefits regime, causing the economy to shrink by -0.1% in October, while unemployment is at a five-year high. The British Medical Association, which represents junior doctors, seems to have a tin ear for our zero growth economy and Health Secretary Wes Streeting is quite right to refuse any more public money. Not least because it would add inflation.