The night before public hospital doctors in Australia’s priciest state, New South Wales, went on a three-day strike to protest against pay and working conditions, I went to bed thinking what it must be like to be in their shoes.

I would be nervous about the reaction from the public who might judge me for being yet another greedy doctor.

But I’d be extra nervous about the administrators who had labelled the doctors “clinical marshmellows” [sic].

After the strike, would I have a job to return to? Or be branded a troublemaker? What would my colleagues say? God forbid, I might even relinquish the precious credential of being a “team player”. Of all the insults, this is the one that really gets under a doctor’s skin.

But to be honest, the thing that would steal my sleep is guilt. Guilt at not fulfilling my duty to patients. At not living up to my own expectations. The faces of my patients would keep me up. Who would check their sodium level? Who would convey their scan results? Who would explain the cancelled surgery? If 500 oncology appointments were being deferred, how would I face my patients again? Amid their own challenges, was it even ethical to expect them to understand mine?

This is the unwritten code of healthcare. Other professionals strike, doctors don’t. Until now.

It is no secret that public hospital conditions are overstretched. What is clear is that the willingness of public hospital doctors to keep the system........

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