Militant can’t join picket line... as he’s now a GP on £70,000
THE junior doctors’ strike leader can no longer join the picket lines because he has qualified as a GP on almost £ 0,000 a year.
Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairman of the British Medical Association’s junior doctors committee, was added to the medical regulator’s GP register earlier this month.
He has been demanding a 35 per cent pay rise for trainees who will strike for a tenth time from today until Wednesday.
Dr Laurenson, 29, was previously criticised for taking a holiday to attend a friend’s wedding during a strike last year.
He will remain co-chairman of the BMA committee until the end of his elected term in October, the union said. Conservative MP Paul Bristow, who sits on the Commons health and social care committee, told The Sun: ‘These strikes cannot be led by someone who isn’t a junior doctor.
‘He has no skin in the game so he can prolong the strikes while still getting paid.’ Fellow Tory MP Dr Luke Evans, a former GP, said: ‘I wonder if swapping from a trainee to a GP he himself will change his perspective given he is directly responsible for his patients?
‘The buck now stops with him. His patients are the ones who will, sadly, feel the brunt of this action.’
The walkouts have cost the NHS around £3 billion and seen 1.4 million appointments cancelled.
A government source said junior doctors, who are paid between £32,398 and £63,152, have been offered a rise of 10.3 per cent.
They said: ‘They should be caring for patients and getting round a table to agree a sensible deal.’
Fully qualified salaried GPs receive between £68,9 5 and £104,085 annually, while independent contractors who run their own practices can earn more.
The BMA said Dr Laurenson will not be working on strike days but would not say if he will take paid or unpaid leave.
A spokesman added: ‘Dr Laurenson is elected to the position of co-chair of junior doctors committee until the end of the 2023/24 session.
‘He is not required to step down immediately because he is a GP and with the full support of the committee, he will continue as the elected co-chair until the end of his term.’
Dr Laurenson was educated at the £46,566-a-year private Sevenoaks School in Kent and is a director at his family’s multi-million-pound investments firm.