Imagine if every passenger on an airplane had a direct line to the pilot. That’s what medicine has become. We have embraced frictionless communication and that not a good thing. With things like Epic Chat, every member of the healthcare team has immediate access to the physician. Now there’s a constant stream of minor questions. It’s discouraged people from thinking critically. “Just ask the doctor,” has replaced any sort of clinical reasoning. When I was a resident, we had an answering service. Anyone who wanted to reach the doctor needed to go through a third party. This provided triage and accountability. If we were getting called in the middle of the night for stool softener orders, there was a record of that. A little friction in communication is a good thing.

Strikes announced. We had hoped a change of leadership at the Department of Health & Social Care would be a chance to reset talks. Instead, there’s been no new fair offer on pay and no concrete commitment on jobs. That’s why resident doctors are taking action. See you on the picket line.

Sir Keir Starmer has issued an ultimatum to resident doctors to call off their strikes or lose the current deal on the table. The Prime Minister has threatened to withdraw an offer of thousands of extra specialty NHS training posts if the British Medical Association follows through on its threat of a six-day strike after Easter. Last week, the resident doctors' committee rejected a pay rise offer of up to 7.1% without putting it to members for a vote.