Fury as militant junior doctor brags about her luxury Italy holiday during recent strikes after urging colleagues to join the picket line
Dr Eilidh Garrett has been an outspoken advocate for striking resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, but was absent from the picket line during the latest round of strikes last month as she enjoyed a getaway in Italy instead.
The medic, who is in her 20s, shared a series of photos of a villa in Tuscany, which featured a swimming pool, an open plan living area, chandeliers and indoor balconies, adding: 'So lucky to be in the most amazing villa I've ever seen.'
Dr Garrett posted the holiday snaps on July 27, the same day that thousands of junior doctors across the country took part in a five-day walkout over pay.
Weeks before the strike Dr Garrett had encouraged her colleagues to 'vote yes' in a ballot over whether resident doctors should go on strike. 'Fluffy sentiments don't pay the bills,' she added in the same post.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said Dr Garrett had taken annual leave for her holiday before the strike dates were announced.
The doctor also hit back at the uproar about her Italian excursion, saying it was for her 'partner's business trip being hosted by someone else, and I'm tagging along.'
She added that one doctor having a 'nice experience' should not be used in an argument against increasing junior doctors' wages.
Reacting to the post, Shadow Health Secretary Stuart Andrew told the Sun: 'The BMA claim it's about fairness, but flaunting a luxury holiday while patients are left in the lurch and colleagues forgo wages on strike is a slap in the face.'
The union is demanding a 29 per cent pay rise despite receiving above-inflation pay uplifts totalling 28.9 per cent over the past three years.
Mr Streeting has insisted there is no more money available and says he will not be 'held to ransom' by the BMA.
He has offered to improve resident doctors' working lives, including in areas such as training and exam fees, although was not enough to avert recent industrial action.
Analysis by NHS England claimed less than a third of resident doctors joined strike action last week. The number of medics that took part in the walkout was down by 7.5 per cent (1,243) on the previous round of industrial action in July last year.
However, the BMA rejected this, saying complex work schedules and doctors taking leave make this information 'almost impossible to know'.
It is not the first time Dr Garrett has come under fire for her activities during junior doctor strikes. In 2023, Dr Garrett revealed she was recovering from liposuction from surgery during a period of industrial action.
Dr Garrett told her followers after the unprecedented strike had finished, that she had undergone lipo to her 'upper and lower' abdomen and 'inner and outer thighs and flanks' earlier in the week.
Earlier in the week she updated her social media to say she was 'recovering well' and was at home
She wrote: 'Recovery isn't supposed to be going this badly but clearly I'm a wuss. It wasn't traditional lipo so usually a much faster turn around.
'Before anyone says, I didn't do it to lose weight,' she added. 'I was happy with my weight but I carried a fair bit of weight on my thighs and my hips, that I felt was disproportionate, so this was just the right decision for me.'
Dr Garrett told her Twitter followers on April 11, the first day of the 96-hour strike, that she was 'excited' to try the anaesthetic drug propofol 'tomorrow', suggesting her op was on April 12.
That day, she updated her social media to say she was 'recovering well' and was at home. Dr Garrett described her surgery as 'traumatic' during the final full day of strike action and detailed how she almost fainted four or five times.
The former Newcastle University student also co-founded the campaign #LiveableNHSbursary, which calls for a review of the financial aid medical students receive during their training.
In May 2022, speaking about the launch of the campaign, she told The Guardian her £10 hourly wages barely touch her £4,000 credit card debt.
Dr Garrett, who grew up in Hampshire, also worked part-time in car finance during her studies. Medical students cannot take industrial action because they do not hold contracts with the NHS.
Dr Garrett attended the first junior doctor walk-out in March 2023 in London, posting a picture of herself on her way to the picket line.
A BMA spokesperson said: 'We question the editorial judgement of a newspaper which believes there is a story in a doctor taking annual leave booked before strike dates were announced, and in any case this strike would not have been necessary had the Government provided resident doctors in England with an offer that was credible and acceptable to them.'
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