Resident doctors split down the middle over strike action and Scottish Health Secretary to act like an adult by meeting with them on Monday, more than three weeks before

Professor John Robertson OBA

BBC Scotland Unhealthy Correspondent, Lisa Summers, is off like a dog out of a trap this morning to report gleefully that Scotland’s resident doctors ‘will‘ but it’s still ‘may‘ Lisa, may go on strike.

OMG Lisa! This week? No, it’s more than three weeks away. Will anyone in Government take this seriously and meet with them soon? Yes, on Monday.

As always, the bias is more subtle than in the Daily Record.

The headline – Resident doctors in Scotland to go on strike for first time – is inaccurate as pointed in their own 5th paragraph:

BMA Scotland earlier said it still believed a resolution could be found and had called for the Scottish government to get back to the negotiating table and present a “credible offer”.

and the preceding one:

Health Secretary Neil Gray said he was disappointed by the result, adding that he had offered to meet the BMA Scotland chairman on Monday.

Of course they’re not going to put the truth into the headline which should be

Health Secretary to meet immediately with resident doctors to try to avert strike action in three weeks.

Next, why is this the 3rd paragraph:

With 92% voting in favour, strike dates have been set for 07:00 on Tuesday 13 January to 07:00 on Saturday 17 January 2026.

and this the 13th:

With 5,185 resident doctors in Scotland eligible to vote, turnout was 58% with a total of 3,008 votes cast.

Any 16 year-old would know these two facts belong close together.

What is 92% of that 58%? It’s 53% so almost half of these doctors were not that bothered or voted against the action.

I’m not saying then BMA was wrong to act on 58% of the turnout, just that we deserve to know this sort of thing.

Finally, acting like an adult?

Health Secretary Neil Gray said he was disappointed by the result, adding that he had offered to meet the BMA Scotland chairman on Monday.

not like this lad:

8 thoughts on “Resident doctors split down the middle over strike action and Scottish Health Secretary to act like an adult by meeting with them on Monday, more than three weeks before”

  1. Hopefully the situation can be resolved to everybody’s satisfaction. I would just make this point that if we had control of all our finances, as an Independent nation of course, and the subsequent riches that would entail, maybe we could enhance, not only doctors salaries, but all public servants entitlements, which I believe have fallen, at least since the 1980s.

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    2. Yes very good point and one that SNP should point out though I think John Swinney has done, but of course the BritNat media…I mean propaganda is the enemy of Scotland.

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  3. The Youtube channels I see reporting on the NHS strikes in England, do not specify it’s England only at present. The Al Jazeera English channel said ‘UK’ in their title, but specified it’s in England in the report online.
    The BritNat media must be praying that Scotland’s NHS doctor’s do strike.
    Let’s hope an agreement can be reached with the Scottish health secretary/government, to avoid any strikes.

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