The false friend ‘Junior Doctors’ indicates all doctors who have not completed their specialization course yet. A period ranging from five to seven/eight years after their degree, during which they carry out diversified internships, depending on the career path they want to take up. Therefore, they are fundamental members of the national healthcare service in each country, but, in some EU countries, they feel like they count for nothing.For example, in the UK, among 55 thousands young British doctors, about 37 thousands (67%) are enrolled in the BMA (British Medical Association), the doctors trade union which organized the strike on January 12th; a second one had been scheduled for today, January 26th, but they later called it off in the light of the ongoing talks with the Government on a new contract. As a matter of fact, at the basis of the protest, there is the Government’s purpose to change doctors’ working shifts (and their salaries) in a way they cannot accept: a significant reduction of “overtime hours” without any salary increase nor career advancements no longer tied to seniority, but to extra training.On the SNJMG website, the national union of French junior general practitioners (Syndicat National des Jeunes Médecins Généralistes), the moral support to their colleagues across the Channel is explicit, while the Italian colleagues have announced a new 48-hour strike after the one held on the 16th of December: the Italian healthcare system is going to be blocked again on the 17th and 18th March 2016. They want to reiterate their ‘no’ to the cuts to the healthcare services provided to citizens and to the “government indifference to healthcare problems”.
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