Denying medical service to a person calling for a doctor’s attention and support on grounds of self-interest when obeying a union directive is totally alien to the conscience and character of a good physician.

A hospital is not a factory where the downing of tools can be made with the minimum of concern for the resulting effect. It is not lifeless objects or money we are playing with here but human beings in distress reaching out for help.

Hence, trade unions and healthcare professions do not make comfortable bedfellows and those that lead such unions have a special responsibility to act soberly to avoid doing harm to patients.

Taking so-called industrial action should be a very last resort after serious deliberation by a majority of the members of a doctor’s union. Things should not be left to a few members of a committee… and no sanction should be taken against any doctor that conscientiously declines to follow a directive for strike action.

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