Doctors stage biggest walkout in NHS history. Senior hospital doctors, known as consultants, in England will also begin a 48-hour strike on July 20, with radiographers following suit from July 25

sabbah@lemmy.world to World News@lemmy.world – 272 points –
Doctors stage biggest walkout in NHS history - EasternEye
easterneye.biz
19

You are viewing a single comment

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.

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.