Not Fair, Not Safe.

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#notfairnotsafe is a hashtag that has been used on Twitter to campaign against the proposed changes to Junior Doctor's contracts by the government, for a bit of background, although often a junior doctor is thought of as a doctor in their first 2 years (as my boyfriend currently is) they really can be seen as any doctor who isn't a consultant/GP. So, that means the anaesthetist who is first on call for all of the hospital with immense responsibility, a person who has had 5 years of medical school, 2 years of foundation and 1-7 years of further training is a junior doctor. That means this proposals affects A LOT of people. A lot of people are upset about it, many think changes will make things dangerous for patients and doctors. It has been enough to create talks of strikes and to instigate large protests by junior doctors and their supporters, doctors are not people who can be politicised easily. 

If our doctors are overworked and tired, they can't look after patients safely. I am a nurse and I have seen what doctors go through on a long stretch of shifts, both in my professional life and the fact I live with a junior doctor. He has just finished working 30 hours over the weekend and is straight onto a normal working week of Monday to Friday 9-5 (but normally ending at 6-6:30) We haven't seen each other all weekend, we haven't socialised with family and we won't this week because of how exhausted he is and yet Jeremy Hunt proposes that Monday to Saturday 7am to 10pm are social hours of work. Not only is it not fair and not safe, it is ludicrous to think anybody could call those hours social. 

What about the doctors who already can't put their children to bed at night because they're working until 10pm each night who will now be told that is within social working hours? The doctors who haven't seen a Christmas with their family for years. Would an MP be expected to do this?

It is both unfair to the doctors and unsafe for the patients, doctors come into the profession to care for people, this care will be compromised with these changes. The fact that there have already been protests and there are talks of strikes attest to this. Doctors do not take these decisions lightly. 

Please email your MP and ask them to listen to the experts and the public - we want a safe NHS and that means safe working hours for staff. Less pay for more hours to create more weekend cover and a 7 day working week? Like that doesn't exist already. We have already see that the death rates for weekends have been skewed, so there is no legitimate reason for these changes. 

Worth a watch, when a comedian is making more sense than our government then you know things need an overhaul. 

Another hashtag to take a look at is #iminworkJeremy 

You can sign the petition here, where there is also a template for you to email your MP.