When I got to the hospital at 1pm today there was no sign of a picket outside. Where were the striking junior doctors? Inside? I walked in and there was just the usual queue for the lifts. There are 12 floors at Hull Royal Infirmary – try to climb the stairs and you could end up being a patient! Anyway, no junior doctors’ picket.

Back outside, I spotted the office of the union Unison. The woman inside told me the strikers had gone to march around the centre of town, so I set out to find them. Halfway there I met about a dozen strikers, mostly in uniform, placards in hand, on their way back to the hospital, all set to stay on the picket line till 5pm. In town they’d handed out leaflets and explained their case for striking, and now, on their way back, they were greeted by a continual stream of car drivers hooting their support.

Why were they striking? They’ve been trying to negotiate a decent contract, they explain in their leaflet, that

“pays us fairly for the hours we work

ensures that the hours we work are safe

provides cover at weekends and at night, but also recognises our right to family life

doesn’t disadvantage those doctors who work less than full time or who take parental leave”

Now the government is threatening to impose a contract on them which doesn’t satisfy these points. The strike is “a last resort”, they explain. One of the doctors holding a placard and a handful of leaflets told me, “Quite honestly, I’d rather be working, but what else can we do?”

His words illustrate two things. First, their action today was not aimed at patients and did not put patients at risk, though that allegation has been made and will be made again. They are medics because they want to care for their patients. Secondly, his words are a measure of their desperation. Their leaflet explains:

“We are fed up of hearing government ministers undervalue our work and undermine patients’ trust in us. Many of us are already at breaking point, looking to work overseas or even leaving the medical profession altogether.”

“So when’s the next strike?” I asked my new doctor friend.

“Oh, not till next week,” he said. “But we’re  hoping it won’t be necessary. We’re hoping the government will see sense and come back to negotiate.”

I must say the idea of the government seeing sense is not one that has often occurred to me. I suspect his hope is a vain one. There’ll be need for more strikes, and support from other workers, not just those in the medical professions, before the doctors get their contract.

Anyway, next week I’ll try to be on time and join the picket. Is that still called “secondary picketing”? And is that still illegal?

Don’t know.

Don’t care.