THE strikes by junior doctors are a dereliction of duty and further undermine a true leviathan of our time.
Their irresponsible action add to calls for reform of an NHS that 65 years ago cost £13.5 billion a year to run.
Today, that figure is a staggering £182 billion.
Times have changed since the NHS’s inception in 1948, that’s true.
We live longer thanks to advances in medicine and, of course, there are millions more people to care for.
One thing that should not have changed, though, is the duty clinicians owe to their patients, a point that these striking doctors appear to have forgotten.
Their decision to take industrial action not once, but twice at this time of year, and for an unprecedented length of time, is morally and medically indefensible.
The Health Secretary told the Commons this week that nearly 90,000 appointments had been cancelled before Christmas, some having to be rescheduled for a second or even third time.
That was in addition to the 1.1 million appointments already affected since the strikes began in December 2022.
She added that real people lay behind these shocking statistics, many in pain and distress.
Let’s not forget that junior doctors have received average pay rises of almost nine per cent in their September pay packets, meeting the recommendations of the independent pay review body in full.
Their demand for a 35 per cent increase is unreasonable and unaffordable.
To be fair, some junior doctors, including a high number at Dorset County Hospital, have continued to work and they are to be thanked.
Even so, this month alone, more than 150 patients had their care rescheduled and delayed, and efforts to cut the waiting list impeded.
My message to the strikers is simple: go back to work.