WATCH: BMA chairman and Inverness GP demand SNP candidates to prioritise NHS
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The chairman of the BMA Scotland Dr Iain Kennedy has called on the three SNP leadership candidates to put junior doctor pay at the top of their priority list.
The Inverness GP was speaking at a demonstration in London today in support of English junior doctors on the picket lines.
He warned that “in Scotland we have our own problems” and "full pay restorateion" is needed to avoid what he called an “exodus of junior doctors to Australia and New Zealand.”
According to the Tweet: “He is urging the Scottish government to enter into meaningful talks over full pay restoration before the Scottish strike ballot opens on March 29.”
The move ramps up the pressure on candidates to concentrate on issues directly impacting the public sector and to provide the answers amid growing frustration – chiefly the crisis in NHS Scotland.
Dr Kennedy said: “From the Highlands and Islands of Scotland all the way down to the south coast of England, doctors and the British Medical Association are here in support of junior doctors.
“It is about time that the UK government had serious discussions on full pay restoration.
“And in Scotland we have our own problems, we have shortages of GPs, we have shortages of hospital doctors, and we cannot have an exodus of junior doctors to Australia and New Zealand.
“And that is why I am calling on the next First Minister of Scotland, whether that is Humza Yousaf, Kate Forbes or Ash Regan, to put junior doctor pay at the top of their to do list, if they become First Minister.”
