Junior doctors have had enough: They are joining the strike action affecting the NHS. Faced with massive disruption of service, some providers offer a questionable solution to the staff shortage.
The UK can’t catch a break, as industrial action continues in all corners. Especially NHS workers are all up in arms and striking left and right. Why? Regardless of occupation and branches it comes down to three main reasons: low pay, low morale and unsafe staffing levels are all taking a toll on workers’ wellbeing. Strikes by nurses, ambulance workers and others already impelled the British Government to make concessions and enter new pay talks, which is why their respective unions have called off further strikes – for the time being.
A recent survey among healthcare professionals in the NHS revealed that 45 % have felt unwell because of work-related stress in the past 12 months. More than one third reported feeling burnt out, a feeling which was especially prevalent among ambulance staff with 49 %. It’s therefore no surprise that more than 30 % of NHS workers think of quitting for good – 17 % saying they intend to leave as soon as they can find another job.
This tense situation also has a significant impact on patient safety: The Guardian reports that 7.2 million patients are currently waiting for treatment in England, and barely half of all accident and emergency cases were seen within four hours. In fact, an investigation by The Guardian reveals that at least 511 seriously ill patients died last year before they could get treatment because ambulances simply took too long. As hospitals are already overloaded, patients are forced to stay and wait outside in ambulances for hours on end, leaving the paramedics stuck and unable to respond to other emergency calls. In a few instances patients reportedly had to wait up to 15 hours after their 999 calls for an ambulance to arrive.
While these numbers are still likely an underestimation, they clearly illustrate the duress the NHS is facing – and that things need to change. Urgently.
Which is why junior doctors are currently on strike. Their 72-hour walkout from March 13 to March 15 is unprecedented and will see a much larger disruption of NHS services than previous strikes did – both because of the sheer duration and because of the great numbers of staff involved. Nearly half of the English medical workforce are junior doctors, NHS director of strategy, Chris Hopson, points out. And whereas the nurses and ambulance strikes affected mostly hospitals, the junior doctors strike will affect the NHS on every level down to the general practitioner. “All NHS organizations or provider organizations have junior doctors”, Hopson warns, “[…] Half of all GP practices actually have trainees.”
When junior doctors last went on strike in 2016, nearly 300,000 outpatient appointments had to be canceled and thousands of elective procedures had to be postponed, another NHS leader recalls. To maximize the disruption this time, junior doctors have furthermore chosen not to spare emergency and critical care as well as maternity services from strike action.
Faced with these prospects, it seems several NHS organizations are turning to questionable means to soften the blow. As The Guardian reports, medical students have been urged to provide clinical support in English hospitals. An email by the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS trust to students in the area reads: “Whilst we support our staff with their decisions we need to have plans in place to ensure the continuity of safe patient care. I would therefore appreciate it if you could consider supporting the wards by covering any of the affected days in the role of medical student support worker.”
While it’s claimed that this particular email is part of a routine procedure (as year 5 medical students have been invited to work in this role alongside consultants on a regular basis beforehand) it is no isolated case and doctors’ organizations condemned this course of action. They raise safety concerns as well as concerns of the legal ramifications it might have for the students, if they were to assist in situations they are not qualified for and make mistakes.
Dr. Paul Donaldson, general secretary of the Hospital Doctors’ Union HCSA, stated that any attempt to deploy students into such a high-pressure situation is alarming. “There is clearly a risk that they may be asked to do things beyond their skill level and without any indemnity to protect them. Undoubtedly, proper supervision is going to be difficult with consultants focusing on emergency and acute cases.” He further condemns any attempts to dress this up as a “good learning opportunity”, which reflects “a cavalier approach towards patient safety and their duty of care to the students.”
Because of this high risk of students being pressured to act up and fill in the junior doctors’ gaps – while there is no room for proper supervision anyway – doctors’ associations have called on all English universities to cancel any student placements on strike days. The British Medical Association (BMA) directly addresses the affected students and urges them to refuse any tasks that “sit outside the normal parameters of their placement”. Ray Effah, co-chair of the BMA medical students committee, comments: “It is absolutely crucial that medical students work with relevant supervision and in a way that is safe and within the limits of their competence and capabilities at all times.” That includes periods of pressure. “The purpose of students on placement is to learn, not service provision.”
Image source: Edwin Andrade, Unsplash
