Resident doctors in the West Midlands begin strike over pay
"These life and death decisions we are making, yes they are part of the job but we deserve to be respected and remunerated appropriately for that, and £23 an hour is not an unreasonable ask," he said.The walkout by resident doctors began at 07:00 BST on Friday and is set to last until 07:00 BST on 30 July.At New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton and Cannock Chase Hospital, bosses said there had been 236 appointment cancellations for patients, 110 of which were operations.Consultants and senior doctors are covering for resident doctors, who are striking for the 12th time over payDr Brian McCaig, chief medical officer, said they had been through a "number of strikes before" and the hospital needed to prioritise emergency medical care."In terms of planning, we need to first of all prioritise urgent and emergency care and obviously time critical work, such as cancer work and priority operations," he said."Once we've been able to cover those, we then see what activity we can continue with but inevitably, with the industrial action we do need to cancel some activity."One patient, Dave Williams, who was admitted to the hospital with heart problems, said he agreed with the resident doctors strike."They're not paid enough," he told the BBC. "I mean nurses... and doctors, if they all downed tools totally and said right we want more money, the government would have to pay them."
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