Junior doctors in England plan to hold a five-day strike the week before the general election on 27 June. Members of the British Medical Association (BMA) have taken this action because fresh talks, started in mid-May, failed to produce a credible new offer over the long-standing pay dispute with the government. The BMA is requesting a 35% pay rise to compensate for 15 years of below-inflation pay increases. Junior doctors received an average pay rise of almost 9% last year.
This walkout will be the 11th by junior doctors in this dispute. The previous one occurred in February. It will cause disruption to all services, requiring senior doctors to be drafted in to provide cover. It will also affect elective services including routine operations. Junior doctors make up almost half of the doctor workforce in the NHS, with two-thirds being BMA members.
BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs, Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, said: “For more than 18 months we have been asking Rishi Sunak to put forward proposals to restore the pay junior doctors have lost over the past 15 years. Even at this late stage, Mr Sunak has the opportunity to show that he cares about the NHS and its workers”. Health Secretary Victoria Atkins called the strike during the election campaign a “highly cynical tactic”. She added: “I am in politics to help patients not trade unions. The Conservative government has taken tough decisions to keep public spending down to bear down on inflation, which is now back to normal.”
Junior doctors have been on strike in Northern Ireland, and another walkout is planned there in early June. In Wales, talks are currently taking place and no action is planned. However, nearly 1.5 million appointments and operations have been cancelled in England because of strike action, estimated to cost £3bn. Consultants, nurses, midwives and other non-medical staff have all accepted pay offers in England over the past year. Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive at NHS Providers, which represents hospitals, called the latest strike action a “worrying escalation” of the dispute
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More