Never mind the tabloids – majority of public supports junior doctors’ strike

Left Foot Forward

Poll today finds 57 per cent back walkout over contracts

 

The majority of the public support junior doctors’ decision to go on strike today, according to new polling data.

Despite some negative and misleading press coverage, 57 per cent support the walkout, with a quarter of respondents against.

This includes 41 per cent who ‘strongly support’ the strike and 17 per cent who ‘tend to support’. 18 per cent said they ‘strongly oppose’ the strike.

Junior doctors' strike poll April

(Source: Ipsos Mori)

The Ipsos Mori survey of 871 adults in England also found a majority (54 per cent) of respondents blame the government for the ongoing dispute.

However, this is down 10 points from 64 per cent in February. The number who say junior doctors are more at fault has also declined, from 13 per cent in February to just 8 per cent today.

Junior doctors blame poll April

(Source: Ipsos Mori)

Meanwhile, the number who say both sides are equally to at fault has risen from 18 per cent in February to 35 per cent.

Junior doctors are protesting new contracts imposed on them by health secretary Jeremy Hunt, who says the changes are necessary to provide a ‘seven-day NHS’.

But the junior doctors, organised around the British Medical Association, say the contracts are unfair and could put patient safety at risk, saying a real seven-day service ought to be properly resourced.

Today junior doctor Jennifer Rossdale, writing for Left Foot Forward, explained why she and her colleagues are on strike. You can read her piece here.

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2 Responses to “Never mind the tabloids – majority of public supports junior doctors’ strike”

  1. CR

    What the public supports is a proper 7 day NHS service.

  2. Andy King

    ‘What the public supports is a proper 7 day NHS service.’

    And on what evidence do you base your assessment of what the public supports? And what precisely do you by a ‘proper 7 day NHS service’? If the govenment wants to make additional services available at weekends, then it should pay for them, instead of trying to force unreasonable conditions on NHS staff. Would the public support a ‘proper 7 day NHS service’ staffed by exhausted, demoralised and disaffected doctors?

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