00:00 Sure, so do I support the junior doctor strike? I think I do. I don't think there's really a choice.
00:07 I think doctors are so undervalued in this country. You sort of get what you pay for when it comes to medical service.
00:15 I just feel like compared to other professions, doctors just aren't paid enough.
00:19 Yeah, of course. Why wouldn't I support the strikes? Doctors do a real lot for this country really.
00:26 Obviously they deserve to be paid a bit more money than they're already on.
00:30 So yeah, definitely deserve to be paid more money. So strikes, yeah.
00:35 Not massively, no. I think they are unrealistic in their expectations.
00:47 I hear what they're saying about effectively not having had a pay rise or paid these since 2008.
00:56 But everything in the private sector has as well. I earn less than 30.
01:01 The amount of my wages have gone down in real terms is more than 35%.
01:05 How am I supposed to pay for it? I have to increase taxes so they can have a pay rise.
01:09 I do support them to an extent, but I think in the past those jobs used to be a vocation more so than a job.
01:19 And it just seems people are suffering.
01:23 Having previously worked in the NHS, I do actually support the junior doctors' strikes.
01:28 I feel like what they're going through at the moment, especially post-COVID and even before COVID,
01:33 they were very highly overworked, underpaid.
01:36 I've seen the stresses that the doctors have gone through working in both theatres and accident emergency units.
01:42 And I can see that they're struggling and they don't have enough physical hours in the day to get the work that they want doing.
01:48 And being paid pennies for it, I think, isn't quite the injustice for what they're actually doing and saving people's lives.
01:54 OK, I think, look, the reality is the junior doctors are a vital part of the NHS.
02:01 I think the NHS is probably, if not the best organisation which provides health care for all the sick and the people who actually need the service itself.
02:13 In terms of the strike, I get the frustration.
02:16 I think a lot of people are in the same place at the moment where inflation has actually bitten into real-time wages.
02:23 But I think there needs to be a bit of context to that as well.
02:26 Inflation has affected everyone across the country, across the world.
02:31 So it's not a unique problem that the UK is facing.
02:34 I think once the economy jump starts, I think everybody rightly should get a pay increase.
02:42 I think that I understand it from the junior doctors' perspective.
02:47 I also understand it from the government's perspective.
02:49 Ultimately, they are the custodians of the finances of the country.
02:52 So there needs to be a balanced approach.
02:55 So I think everybody needs to get around a table and try and see what the best solution forward is for that.
03:01 about.
03:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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