Oh God, another junior doctor strike. That seems to be the feeling of the country and of the junior doctors I’ve spoken to. Certainly it’s the feeling of the consultants, like myself, who will be covering for them.

Why the BMA has called another strike is clear. They haven’t got what they wanted, and their current mandate expires in early January. What is less clear is whether they should be striking at all. During the last strikes I wrote that the majority of juniors weren’t striking chiefly for a pay rise, but because their jobs and prospects of career progression are being allocated to foreign doctors who, data shows, perform worse on average. 

The usual voices blame the poor performance of foreign doctors on systemic racism, but the real moral failing is holding foreigners to lower standards. That we have started giving them the apprenticeships of domestic graduates is insane

That there seems no serious interest in solving this problem is hard to explain, just as it’s hard to explain why militants (who really are striking for another massive pay rise) are in charge at the BMA. But explanations are needed, because these phenomena are not........

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