Y
esterday saw junior doctors gather in Exeter city centre as part of the nationwide junior doctors strike, a first in forty years.
The strike lasted twenty four hours and followed new government plans implementing changes which will lead to an increased working week and reduced pay.
The doctors out in Princesshay were braving the cold and wet weather to explain to members of the public how the government contract would affect them.
Sarah Harmon, a Clinical Research fellow at Exeter told Exeposé: “We’re not striking today for ourselves, we’re striking because we are concerned about the effects of the new contract on the NHS as a whole. The promise of a seven day NHS is an ill-conceived concept.”
The strike comes in the wake of protests by student nurses across the country over cuts to their funding.
Currently, student nurses receive a training bursary from the NHS. However, in a move estimated to save the NHS eight hundred million pounds a year, this will be replaced with a loan.
Jessica Scott, a junior doctor who qualified in August was among the Exeter protesters. She commented: “We don’t have enough nurses on the ward as it is, so we need to try and encourage people to undertake nursing training. It [the bursary cuts] will make it a lot more difficult to recruit.”