At least four hospital trusts in London have offered £150 to £200 an hour to GPs willing to cover for junior doctors going on strike next week.
Junior doctors demanding pay restoration are being instructed not to begin any shift that is due to start after 06:59 on Tuesday 11 April or return to work before 06:59 hours on Saturday 15 April.
The BMA confirmed that the industrial action will take the form of a full stoppage of work, including night shifts, on-call shifts, and non-resident work, and GP practices have been encouraged to cancel trainee clinics on the strike days.
A WhatsApp message shared on Twitter this morning said that trusts running Chelsea and Westminster, West Middlesex, Charing Cross, St Mary’s, Northwick Park, Ealing and Hillingdon hospitals are looking for GPs willing to provide clinical cover in A&E during the strikes, paying put to £200 per hour.
The message said: ‘Local secondary trusts are working hard to identify senior colleagues to support with work rotas during this time.
‘In particular, they are keen to ask GP colleagues who are available without prior commitments to consider shifts at their local emergency departments.
‘Trusts will pay up to £150/hour for daytime hours, £200/hour for night. If you are interested in volunteering for this work, please make contact with the identified contact person per trust.’
A spokesperson for NHS North West London said: ‘We value our junior doctors and their vital work and fully respect their right to take industrial action.
‘We recognise that next week’s strikes, coming immediately after the Easter bank holidays, are likely to put NHS services under significant pressure.
‘The number one priority of all NHS organisations is to ensure patient safety and we are making every effort to staff our services to provide safe care for our patients. This includes working with our colleagues in primary care to support our urgent treatment centres.’
However, on background, the ICB stated that the suggestion the offer outstripped consultant pay was not accurate.
The BMA said that junior doctors have experienced a cut of more than 25% to their salaries since 2008/09 and the average junior doctor earns £14.09 per hour.
In January, GPs in London were asked to provide clinical cover during ambulance strikes for the second time.
to do so would simply allow HMG off the hook
Offer this and then impose 2.1% hear the piggies squeal .Market rates anyone.
This value your average 9.5 session Gp at £450k gross per year.ouch HMG, makes your 2.1% and an impose cntract look exactly like what it is.
Is this a stalking horse to see how many full time busy GPs will apply?
I believe the word you are looking for is “scab”.
Do they realise how difficult this would be?
As MIchael Green.
Funny how money can be found for this but not juniors’ pay, nor, indeed, that of GPs.
Utter madness. I hope none of us take this on. Not sure who has the time anyway.
A little bit of daily mail style eporting by pulse here.
Pulse is known to regurgitate things anyway.
There are plenty more shifts for GP’s in urgent care centres and ED where they expect more pressures.
Nobody is asking GPs to suddenly work on the wards/write discharge letters etc. They wouldn’t know how to do it anyway.
The author of this regurgitate article has previously written for Oxford Mail and Henley Standard and has no credible medical journalism experience whatsoever. Just saying.
The author of this article is merely reporting what various spokespeople have said. She hasn’t expressed any personal opinion to my knowledge!
Misleading and scaremongering title. Nothing to do with what the regurgitation is about.
During the strike there will be plenty of managers.
this is what consultants have been suggested by the BMA.
https://www.bma.org.uk/pay-and-contracts/pay/rate-cards/consultant-non-contractual-rate-card
I Think that it would be better value for patients for GP’s to provide extra same day cover in their practices or in the out of hours whilst the strikes are happening rather than putting GPs in unfamiliar environments.
Take the £200 and get struck off. Nice little trap just like the one for Dr Barwa Garba with the added twist of the greedy GP taking £200.
this is a letter i wrote to the daily telegraph on sunday:
Sir
It’s a bit rich for the Health Secretary to cry “foul”, and start moaning about the forthcoming junior doctor’s strike by writing a column in the press two days before it is due to start !
Even if he had any intention to avert the strike, offering to reopen talks halfway through the four day easter break is totally unrealistic.
He has known the intended dates of this strike for months, but has made no serious effort to avoid it – presumably in an attempt to emotionally blackmail the BMA into backing down.
That junior doctors have suffered serious pay erosion over the last few years is not in dispute.
Unless a serious, and meaningful effort is made to restore their remuneration, I imagine more disruption is on the cards, and further haemorrhaging of highly trained professionals is likely.
I am, etc
Dr D M G Jenkins, Locum GP, Ferryside, Wales
it was published today, tuesday, but not surprisingly the first three paragraphs were edited out !