My brother is in intensive care – but I still support the junior doctors' strike

If you think the strike over junior doctor contracts is unreasonable, you’ve accepted the neoliberal myth that everything of quality and purpose can be delivered cheaper

Doctors striking outside St Thomas' Hospital in London this week (Getty Images)

Today, as junior doctors are forced to strike, my eldest brother is in intensive care at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton. How I feel about junior doctors walking out while he needs around-the-clock care, however, may surprise you.

Of course I am profoundly worried for my brother, but the doctors who are caring for him have also been empathetic when he has been struggling to breath, coughing up blood, and knocking on death’s door. To witness their care and professionalism is deeply moving.

Yes, it is their job and, yes, they are relatively well paid for doing it. But they are remunerated for a highly-skilled, in-demand role after years of training which leads to huge debts. And they are, understandably, desperate to hold onto some control of their working lives. If you think that is unreasonable, then you’ve accepted the neoliberal myth that everything of quality and purpose can be delivered cheaper and then cheaper still.

There is not, as some would have believe, an ‘infinite demand’ on the NHS. Most of us don’t want to go near the health service. It is is something we use when it is needed – and that is when we value it most.

These junior doctors are the NHS; they are part of its flesh and bone. Today, the junior doctors involved in my brother’s care have coordinated a safety net and I know he is still being carefully looked after. But it is still a difficult time for all. Doctors, patients and their families – like me – would rather it could be avoided. Jeremy Hunt, the Health Minister, could have prevented the strike by simply restarting negotiations with the British Medical Association.

I have only pride and respect for those young doctors forced to defend our NHS and I am bewildered by the foolishness of a government picking on this a cherished social provision.

If the Government is picking on the very people who bring our children and grandchildren into this world, who help us when our families fall ill and empathise and care for as our loved ones die, how can they be surprised at which side the public is on?

The junior doctors aren’t trying to “topple the government”, they only want to defend the NHS. A government that doesn’t recognise that public support will always fall with the health service and its dedicated staff is in self-destruct mode, just like Margaret Thatcher during the Poll Tax years.