Resident doctors hold pickets across West Yorkshire amid strikes over pay
Resident doctors are out today in a dispute over pay and working conditions.
Striking doctors have told of difficult working conditions as they manned picket lines across West Yorkshire today.
Resident doctors are out today in a dispute over pay and working conditions.
Members of the public across West Yorkshire have been urged to come forward for NHS care during the walkout, and are being asked to attend appointments unless told they are cancelled.
GP surgeries will open as usual and urgent care and A&E will continue to be available, alongside NHS 111, NHS England said.
Around 30 doctors and supporters gathered outside Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) on Friday morning, waving placards and cheering as passing cars beeped horns in support.
Cristina Costache, who is a paediatrics registrar at LGI and a PhD student, said: "It's a very difficult decision to make always, because I love my job and that's the reason I went into it. I get depressed if I'm not in work. My heart is always at work.
"But I also care about my colleagues and my profession.
"I'm seeing more and more gaps as registrars. There's always a gap on the paediatric registrar rota. We end up having to cover the job of another paediatric registrar, of even two other paediatric registrars.
"My SHOs (senior house officers) also have gaps, so I sometimes have to cover their job as well as my registrar job. That's not safe and that's not okay.
"The reason that happens is that they're poorly paid. If you're poorly paid, why would you want to come in on your free time when you know you're going to be on nights the next day and then so three or four nights in a row?"
Dr Costache said she left Romania due to the poor health infrastructure and lack of investment.
She said: "It's really sad to have seen in the last nine years, since being here, how the NHS is heading that way. Hence, I'm a trade unionist because I feel like I want to tell people, please don't do what has happened there.
"It can be really scary and really bad, and you don't want to be in that place."
Dave Bell, a retired nurse and member of the campaign group Keep Our NHS Public, stood in solidarity with striking doctors outside St Thomas' Hospital.
"Britain's doctors are the backbone of our NHS," he said. "If you ask anyone who's been to a hospital, they'll tell you those staff work their socks off."
He called for urgent "pay restoration", adding: "We need to value those doctors and restore their pay to what it was 15 years ago."
But he acknowledged the difficulty of strike action within NHS teams.
"I took strike action once when I was a nurse - of course it causes tensions. You're working hard, and if medical staff walk out, it gets even harder for those still in."
Despite this, he said unity is crucial, adding: "In the long run, people have got to work together - the unions too. It can be overcome."