Rakesh Sharma

Family Doctor, BMA GPC, Pennine Lancashire LMC,Tweets are personal. #cricket#music#travel#lover of Lake District

[Vivek Trivedi @_VivekTrivedi]

Except

- Respond to @BMAResidents in Nov

- Continue your ‘journey to fair pay’

(instead you propose to cut pay in 2026 whilst doctors still 20% down, being paid £18.62ph)

- Meaningfully address jobs crisis to create more consultants/GPs & reduce doctor un & underemployment

[Times Radio @TimesRadio]

“The government doesn’t fix issues unless you strike.”

The government “doesn’t even bother to negotiate or talk to you unless you are actively striking”, says Dr Shivam Sharma who “didn’t think I’d strike, even one day.”

@DocShivSharma | @HobbsworldXI | #TimesRadio

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Left: Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting are blaming doctors for going on strike

Right: Dr Haseena Wazir explains why doctors are going on strike @DrHWazir

Warning: If you watch this video, and you genuinely care for the NHS, you'll end up supporting the doctors

Transcript:

Tomorrow I’m going out on strike as a Resident Doctor in England

I don’t take that decision lightly. I became a doctor to look after patients, not to walk away from work

But right now, I’m watching A&Es overflow, ambulances queue outside hospitals, and patients treated in corridors even on non strike days

While doctors who want to work in A&E are competing 14 to 1 for training places, and around 5 to 1 in GP

30,000 doctors applied for 10,000 training jobs this year

Thousands of future Consultants and GPs turned away due to Government imposed caps on training jobs

Doctors are ready to step in. The system isn’t letting them.

On top of that, after years of pay erosion

Wes Streeting has recommended a real terms pay cut for doctors for the next financial year

These factors in combination makes it harder for doctors to stay, to train, and to build a future in the NHS

Wes Streeting’s offer doesn’t change this

The headline 4,000 jobs he announced are a cannibalisation of existing locally employed doctor jobs, so the total number of doctors doesn’t increase at all as a result of his offer

There’s also nothing on pay, despite assurances we were on a ‘journey’ to pay restoration last year

The BMA offered to meet Wes Streeting as soon as the November strikes ended

He ignored the BMA for weeks

Instead, a last-minute rushed offer arrived from him with less than 24 hours to respond

The BMA put it to resident doctors. Nearly 30,000 of them said it wasn’t good enough

For me, this is about jobs and pay together

You can’t reduce waiting lists without training doctors, and you can’t keep doctors in the NHS while cutting their pay in real terms.

Tomorrow, I’ll be standing shoulder to shoulder with @BMAResidents across England on the picket lines; not because we want to strike, but because we need a solution from Wes Streeting that’s actually credible

That still remains within the Government’s gift to deliver

[@DrKatie.BSky.Social @doctor_katie]

@SKinnock Haha! I am @BMA_GP! Stephen’s pragmatic in my experience, just reading a script

I’m confident @wesstreeting well aware practices served >5 million online consults in August - the phoney war is Govt’s

Total silence on how to safely manage infinite patient need - how convenient!

[Adam Janjua @JanjuaAdam]

@SKinnock Must be fun living in your fantasy world of make belief Stephen! All you have succeeded in doing by forcing through this change is to speed up the demise of the ‘Family doctor’. Practices are being flooded with eConsults whilst having to deal with their day job as well. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[Wilmslow Health Centre @WilmslowHealth]

An open invitation to @wesstreeting, @SKinnock et al.
Whilst you are in the NorthWest, please come and visit us on the frontline of primary care. A short journey from Liverpool. We’d love to chat to you about some of the challenges we are facing in primary care which won’t cost you much to sort…

[Rakesh Sharma @drraksharma]

@rvautrey delivering excellent talk on Medical Education and the role of the @rcgp at @BIDAUK National Conference 2025

[Dr Mark Dziobon @MDzi]

Continuity of care is being deliberately dismantled by national policy.GPs picking up results on patients they have not seen but are responsible for #ARRS #ATSCALE it’s a failure & it’s Unsafe. Find core GP @wesstreeting @TheBMA @DrSteveTaylor @Parody_RCGP

[Adam Janjua @JanjuaAdam]

PCNs are the single biggest threat to the sustainability of general practice and the future of GP employment. Fragmentation, loss of autonomy, and destabilisation of the partnership model are not progress. #GPsUnderThreat #GeneralPractice #NHS

[Adam Janjua @JanjuaAdam]

The NHS 10-Year Plan and the Future of General Practice.

A Thread….

[Roshana 🦴 @RoshanaMN]

Wow

This is why doctors are striking

[Dr Luke Craddock @DrLukeCraddock]

Doctors currently earn £18.62 an hour, they are asking for £22.67 an hour. Their assistants get paid £24.45 an hour.

How can @wesstreeting defend paying doctors less than their assistants?

[Mark Green @DrVoles]

I'm not a Resident Doctor.
I am privileged enough to pay for a cleaner.

I pay my cleaner £25 per hour.

Resident Doctors are asking for less than that.

My cleaner makes my house smell nice.
A Resident Doctor will save your life.

#Strikehard

[Dr Matt Kneale (🦋drmk.link) @mattster]

1/ Now the embargo has lifted, I’ve had time to read the @lengreview in full. While some celebrate minor cosmetic wins, I see the formal entrenchment of a parallel, underqualified medical workforce — built without medical training.

[Rakesh Sharma @drraksharma]

From Samarth to Dr Sharma @KingsCollegeLon

[BIDA @BIDAUK]

#BMAARM2025 Motion to cancel Palantir’s NHS Federated Data Platform PASSED ✅

Proposed by BIDA EC member @FareedAlQusous

The BMA will now lobby govt to scrap the contract, citing threats to trust, transparency & human rights, and calling for public, safe, ethical alternatives.

[Anisopoikilocyte @Anisocyte]

@wesstreeting Wes, this is extremely disingenuous

You are paying medically unqualified assistants (PAs) more than the fully qualified doctors who you’re asking to supervise PAs

PAs start at £24.52ph
F1s start at £18.62ph

PAs are being paid >30% more than doctors.

Do you think this is fair?

[Alan Stout @AlanStout19]

Thanks for your support @DrSteveTaylor .

Looking at the positives, there is no simpler and quicker way to both enrage but also to unify GPs than he has managed to do.

We’ll always stand up for our colleagues and our patients

[Alan Stout @AlanStout19]

I have never, ever seen anything like this in all my years in the NHS and in medical politics.

Astonishing, breathtaking, disrespectful and dangerous.

I really fear for our future

[General Practice @BMA_GP]

📢 The Value of a GP
We've made it very clear: general practice is vital to a healthy NHS.

This new BMA report lays out the evidence – economic, clinical, and human – that shows why GPs are essential. Continuity of care is the remedy.

Read here 👉 https://t.co/PAbyjYCKGp