Helen Martin: Doctors striking is just a sick joke

I am too fearful that some of them might have voted for action which, like many people, I see as greedy and self-serving and based on a sort of Marie-Antoinette ignorance about the ways of the world.

On June 21, we may find our GP appointments cancelled or rescheduled. We may find our non-urgent operations cancelled with weeks to wait for a new date. “Non-urgent” by the way, doesn’t refer to breast enhancement or face-lifts; it includes artificial hips and, broadly speaking, anything that can wait without killing you. It all depends on how your doctor, or those on his team, have voted.

It’s been 37 years since their last industrial action so they don’t down stethoscopes at the drop of a scalpel. But they blame the Government for reneging on a 2008 agreement resulting in doctors having to work to 68 and contribute 14.5 per cent of their salary towards their pensions.

They say it’s not about greed or preferential treatment, it’s about fairness. To back this up they point out that they are being asked to pay up to twice as much as high-ranking civil servants on the same pay, for the same pension.

What they don’t seem to grasp is that to the rest of us, the obvious solution is to level the playing field and tell the civil servants to pay more too, because both of them are – quite simply – paid too much.

Doctors are held in very high regard in this country. I believe the ones in my family are good, hard-working people who put their patients first. One is a GP who is particularly passionate about patients’ rights, especially when it comes to welfare cuts. He gives his off-duty time to several related causes. His late father was also a doctor who set up a medical charity and worked for the poor in Africa.