A junior doctors’ leader has pologised for going on holiday while his colleagues are on the picket line.
Dr Rob Laurenson, 28, has taken the week off to be at a friend’s wedding.
It has meant the ex-public schoolboy has not joined any of his colleagues outside hospitals, and is being paid to take annual leave while other doctors sacrifice their wages.
Some 350,000 appointments and operations have been rescheduled as a result of the four-day action.
Dr Laurenson, a trainee GP from Kent, was elected as co-chairman of the British Medical Association’s junior doctor committee in October alongside Dr Vivek Trivedi and has orchestrated the strikes.
He posted a message to colleagues in an online forum after one medic expressed their “disappointment” at his behaviour during the strike - which ends at 7am on Saturday.
“I can see that you feel undermined and I am really sorry my actions have contributed to that,” Dr Laurenson wrote.
“The thing most important to me is the integrity of the unity of doctors and that is why I’m at pains to be as transparent as possible and accountable as possible.”
He concludes his message by saying he remains committed to both doctors and winning the dispute before adding: “I hope you can forgive me.”
Downing Street said there will be no talks unless junior doctors abandon their starting position of a 35 per cent pay rise and call off the strikes.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told reporters in Belfast yesterday that he was “surprised to read” Dr Laurenson was on holiday during the walkout. Lord Bethell, the former health minister, called the union leader a “plonker”.
Even Dr Laurenson’s father Ian Laurenson, 69, said he was “on the other side” to son, adding: “We have a conflict of interest because we’re taxpayers - customers of the NHS - and he’s on the other side, wanting more money.
“It was a bit of a surprise to us when he stood for election. He’s not been known as some sort of militant anarchist and red in the bed.”
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A Department of Health and Social Care source said the fact that Dr Laurenson “didn’t turn up to his own strikes” showed that the union’s leadership were not taking efforts to find a solution to the dispute seriously.
The BMA told the Standard it had nothing further to add.
