Junior doctors to give CPR lessons in Leamington during strike

Junior doctors from Warwick Hospital outside the Royal Priors in Leamington at a previous strike

The lessons will run from 11.30am to 2pm, and were conceived as a way of trying to bring something good from the two-day strike, which includes junior doctors in accident and emergency for the first time.

Junior doctors will be striking from 8am to 5pm on Tuesday April 26 and Wednesday April 27 if a compromise cannot be found.

Dr Angharad de Cates, Specialist Registrar in General Adult Psychiatry at Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust said: “We are doing this is to bring something good out of being forced to go on strike. The Department of Health is trying to spread the existing five day routine services over seven days with no more doctors or additional resources.

“This is unsafe for patients, as we already don’t have enough doctors for the five day routine services and seven day emergency services we already provide.

“In fact, to make seven day routine services work we would need more doctors but also more nurses, pharmacists and other support staff like porters, radiographers, and lab technicians. There is no extra money for this. I believe that the government have no idea how much seven day routine services would cost.”

All Saints Parish Church vicar Fr Christopher Wilson said: “We’re delighted to be able to offer All Saints for this service to the community, which shows the goodwill and dedication of our junior doctors even at a time of considerable pressure and uncertainty.

“We hope that plenty of people from the community will be able to take up this offer of training, whilst also praying for a satisfactory resolution of the current dispute.”

The strike is in opposition to the contracts proposed by health secretary Jeremy Hunt.

Addressing Parliament in February, he said the previous contract drawn up in 1999 was ‘not fit for purpose’ and criticised the BMA for not being flexible in previous negotiations.

He added: “The definition of a negotiation is a discussion where both sides demonstrate flexibility and compromise on their original objectives, and the BMA ultimately proved unwilling to do this.”