It's Christmas!

'Everybody's having fun', said Noddy Holder. Except today, 20 September, the day of the first combined junior doctor and consultant strike in the NHS's 80-year history. Today the NHS offers only a Christmas Day service.

Unlike the majority of people who enjoy Christmas without work, doctors are on emergency duty on Christmas Day. During my 40-year career in the NHS, I regularly delivered babies and treated miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies on Christmas Day with the help of other health professionals. No one thought the service we provided was dangerous. Nobody complained about the lack of routine surgeries or clinics.

Yet today we are told that the Christmas Day service puts patients at risk. We are told of cancelled operations and appointments and we see people whose operations have been postponed and we sympathise, although the context of these cancellations is not always made clear. But on a day that has long been marked as a strike day, there is no explanation as to why operations have been scheduled. On 25 December, the NHS doesn't schedule routine operations or clinics.

The narrative may be to break public support for the strike, which has so far been broadly positive. The public are aware that this is about pay, particularly for junior doctors, but it is also about the future of the NHS. Is it 'safe in our hands', as many governments have promised? Or has the service been degraded and staff demotivated over the last 10 years by the failure to properly value and reward the increasingly disillusioned staff who saw us through Covid? The same staff who we applauded every Thursday are now working extra hours to cover staff vacancies and absences due to stress and the departure of doctors.

Even before Covid, waiting lists had doubled from 18 weeks being the maximum to routinely over a year. Striking has contributed minimally, if at all, to increasing waiting times.

The strike is about the future of the NHS, not an extra Christmas Day. It's stressful to be on strike. It's a last resort for any doctor and a decision not taken lightly, one that requires more than a personal desire for more pay.

So keep supporting the doctors and maybe write to your MP to bring the Governmant back to the negotiating table, it's the only way to save the NHS.

If you took the difficult decision to strike and are struggling to balance your commitment to today's patients with your commitment to the future of the NHS, you may be feeling stress, disillusionment and even burnout. Do not suffer alone; consider 1:1 coaching with a trained executive coach. Please book a confidential 30 minute conversation, without obligation, here.

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