Cllr Caroline Russell, Green councillor for Highbury East ward and candidate for the London Assembly, said: “The decision to continue with this week’s junior doctors’ strikes was not taken lightly. People go into medicine because they want to treat patients and not to stand on a picket line to protect their jobs and patient safety. It is wrong that they have been forced to this point by the obstinate approach of the health secretary.
The government must change the way it treats our NHS and reopen negotiations with the junior doctors. A caring health secretary would put forward a contract that is fair and works for staff and patients alike.
Until then, I and fellow Green Party members in Islington will continue to stand in solidarity with these NHS staff as they fight for what’s right.
Industrial action is a last resort. The junior doctors I spoke to this morning outside the Whittington were striking with a heavy heart. They just want Jeremy Hunt to talk to them and were ready to call off this action if he drops his insistence on imposing a new contract.
It’s welcome news that senior doctors covered emergency and life-saving care this week but this situation cannot continue. The government is risking patient safety and is simply attacking a hard-working, highly skilled workforce with its bullying and disrespectful attitude towards the junior doctors. It has to stop.”