Professor John Robertson OBA
After the last set of Junior Doctor strikes in 2023/2024, there were serious concerns about postponed appointments and excess deaths due to these.
Above, the shocking picture of 52 out of the last 365 when doctors were on strike in England. There were no days lost to action in Scotland.
According to the Guardian on 10 January 2025, junior doctor strikes caused around 1.3 million appointments to be cancelled. Had there been comparable action in Scotland, around 130 000 appointments would have been lost.
According to the Telegraph on 2 January, there were nearly 53 000 excess deaths in 2023 ‘amid’ the strikes across the UK so, had there been strikes in Scotland, the implication is more than 5 000 deaths were averted by the actions of Humza Yousaf as Health Secretary and then as FM in respecting, meeting with and settling with both consultants and junior doctors, without a single day lost to action.
The SNP settlement to avoid strikes?
From the Guardian July 13, 2023, live feed 08.34:
BMA leaders Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said:
Today marks the start of the longest single walkout by doctors in the NHS’s history, but this is still not a record that needs to go into the history books.
We can call this strike off today if the UK Government will simply follow the example of the government in Scotland and drop their nonsensical precondition of not talking whilst strikes are announced and produce an offer which is credible to the doctors they are speaking with.
The pay offer on the table to junior doctors in Scotland and how it was reached throws into sharp relief the obstinate approach being taken by the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary, Steve Barclay.
The Health Secretary has said there can be no talks while strikes are planned – Scotland has proved him wrong. He said above 5% wasn’t realistic – Scotland proved him wrong. He refused to even acknowledge the concept of pay restoration – Scotland proved this is not only possible but essential.
The BMA leaders said talks have to be resumed, adding:
The government’s refusal to talk with junior doctors in England who have strikes planned is out of keeping with all norms of industrial action.
Doctors have a right to expect that as in Scotland, and as in many other recent industrial disputes, talks will continue right up to the last minute to try and reach a deal without the need to strike.
The complete inflexibility we see from the UK government today is baffling, frustrating and ultimately destructive for everyone who wants waiting lists to go down and NHS staffing numbers to go up.
The government has missed chance after chance to provide a credible offer and potentially bring to an end the industrial action by junior doctors in England and whilst there are differences between junior doctors and governments in England and Scotland, the UK government has far more financial freedom to give doctors what they deserve.
Chair BMA Scotland, Dr Iain Kennedy was strangely not available for comment. Having tea with Sandesh Gulhane MSP (Con)?
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I know the NHS here is not perfect but much better than England but you wont hear that from BBC
Now for something different,
BCC has spent nearly £8m on agency labour to break the bins strike. Let that sink in: A Labour council has spent £8m of your money to break a strike by its workers who face losing £8,000 a year!
Just imagine if the city was Glasgow we would have Sarwar having a fit where is he anyway when his MP has been disciplined.
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BCC? Birmingham?
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https://news.stv.tv/west-central/chancellor-rachel-reeves-to-announce-66m-investment-in-scottish-transport
Where is all the money coming from I thought there was a 22m blackhole.
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Shiney beads stuff…offer their colony sweeties and take their massive resources yawn…Really hope the SNP points out how this is all about the Scottish election in 2026 and that these shiney beads will turn out to be worth nowt, will be all made of really crappy plastic, then chucked in the rubbish, on day one of a takeover of Holyrood by England, again. No thanks Labcons!!!
I was just thinking the SNP needs to step up the message about how cr*p England is under the Labcons and how it’s going to get much ‘worse’, so don’t be turkeys voting for xmas in 2026 Scotland!
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Wes Streeting the English Health Secretary has stated:
“We won’t let the BMA hold this country to ransom”…….
That’s the country as in England BTW and not the other one that they laughingly call either Britain or refer to as the UK (State)…..as it’s only English doctors on strike.
However Wes Streeting would be more than happy if the BMA Chair in Scotland, Dr Iain Kennedy, would try to “hold” the Scottish government “to ransom” as then Wes Streeting would assume that could or would potentially politically benefit Labour in Scotland more than the SNP. (as would Dr Kennedy assume that also).
I mean the BMA in Scotland via their Chair, Dr Kennedy, is doing his best for Labour in Scotland with him constantly declaring that the #Scotttish-NHS-Is-Sh*te and also that as a Scottish government it is a case of #SNPBAD , same for the Scottish Health Secretaries (various ones) as they have all been #BAD too apparently…..
Does Dr Kennedy now think that Wes Streeting is #Bad in Streeting slating Dr Kennedy’s BMA English colleagues , or is he, Dr Kennedy, happy to let that insult go and so still relentlessly focus on attacking the Scottish NHS, the Scottish government and also the Scottish Health Secretary………
Just asking that Q on behalf of a Nation (Scotland that is , as in the one that is also “a country“- a separate one – but alas, as yet, not an independent one).
Liz S
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