British Doctors’ Strike Not Just About Money, States Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS)

TUCSON, Ariz., Jan. 12, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Three days of walkouts are planned by British junior doctors after contract negotiations broke down, according to reports by the BBC. Only emergency care will be provided; some 4,000 “routine” procedures such as knee and hip replacements will be postponed.

As in any “industrial action,” salaries, including overtime pay, are in dispute, but a simple comparison with the pay in other occupations does not tell the whole story, states AAPS executive director Jane M. Orient, M.D. The doctors are heavily indebted for their education, and the grueling, irregular hours leave little time for family or personal matters.

The workload is overwhelming, many doctors report, and an official 10-hour shift can easily turn into 15 hours. Rates of burnout are soaring. Physicians feel they are too pressured to give adequate care.

Doctors are considered “junior” for as long as 16 years out of medical school. They constitute a third of the medical workforce, states the BBC.

Americans should observe the consequences of the British version of “single payer,” advises Dr. Orient. The doctors have a single employer, and have few options if the single employer is abusive. If they resort to unionization and work stoppages, the entire single system is crippled. The “routine” care that is delayed includes surgeries for which patients have been waiting for months or years.

The British National Health Service holds that patients have a “right” to health care, Dr. Orient explains. This translates into a duty that consumes the lives of young physicians and other professionals, in what amounts to a system of indentured servitude. Patients are paying for “free” care with long waits for degraded quality by fewer, unionized wage slaves who lost their idealism in their first few years. The socialized system pits patients against physicians, and both against taxpayers, to the detriment of all. In the UK, the system so much admired by architects of American “health care reform” is showing the ultimate course of compulsory nationalized medicine, she states.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a national organization representing physicians in all specialties since 1943.

Contact: Jane M. Orient, M.D., (520) 323-3110, [email protected]