Junior doctors to strike for four days next month as pay talks fall flat
JUNIOR doctors will walk out for four days next month after refusing the latest offers from the Government, it has been announced.
Strike action is set to take place From April 11 on 6.59am and will last until Saturday April 15 at 6.59am lasting 96 hours.
The strike planned for next month is longer than the three day wallout that took place on March 13.
It was previously claimed that the junior doctors have faced a “real-terms pay cut of more than 26 per cent” since 2008.
Junior doctors make up around 45 per cent of the NHS’s medical workforce.
Now the British Medical Association (BMA) has said that the Government has failed to come to the table with ‘any credible offers’.
After meeting with the Secretary of State, Steve Barclay, BMA junior doctors’ leaders concluded that the Government was not serious about resolving the dispute.
Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairs of the BMA junior doctor committee, said: “It is with disappointment and great frustration that we must announce this new industrial action.
“The Government has dragged its feet at every opportunity. It has not presented any credible offer and is refusing to accept that there is any case for pay restoration, describing our central ask as ‘unrealistic’ and ‘unreasonable’. ”
The medics said the the Government has continued to add ‘new unacceptable preconditions to talks instead of getting on and trying to find a resolution’.
Dr Trivedi added: “We therefore have no confidence that without further action these negotiations can be successful.
“This situation is entirely of the Government’s own making. We want to spend our time looking after patients, not on strike.
“But with an NHS buckling under a workforce crisis, and four in ten junior doctors looking to leave, we can’t stand by while our pay is further eroded by inflation and an intransigent Government.
“We are not going to stop until we are paid what we are worth, and if ministers don’t accept that when we tell them in person, we will have to tell them from the picket line.”
Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive at NHS Providers said that the prospect of a 96-hour strike by junior doctors would ring alarm bells for trust leaders up and down the country.
“It would immediately follow a four-day bank holiday weekend, meaning demand will have piled up before the strike even begins on April 11. There will also be no exemptions.
“This threatens the biggest disruption from NHS walkouts so far. There should be no doubt about the scale of the impact on patients, staff and the NHS. No-one wants this.
“It’s hugely disappointing that talks between the Government and the doctors’ unions have broken down.
“Trust leaders understand why junior doctors feel they’ve been pushed to this point, but it’s incumbent on all involved to urgently re-enter talks in good faith,” she said.
In response the the strike action announcement, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social care said further strikes will risk patient safety and cause further disruption.
The statement read: “The Health and Social Care Secretary met the BMA’s junior doctors committee yesterday in the hope of beginning constructive talks to resolve the current dispute.
“The BMA placed a pre-condition on these talks of a 35 per cent pay rise. That is unreasonable.
“Our door remains open to constructive conversations, as we have had with other health unions, to find a realistic way forward which balances rewarding junior doctors for their hard work while being fair to the taxpayer.”
Experts previously warned that there will no improvement to the NHS until it has more manpower.
The Institute of Fiscal Studies warned the waiting list of 7million people will “flatline” this year.
And MPs on the Public Accounts Committee said plans to reform local health boards are “paralysed”.
On March 13, Rishi Sunak revealed progress was being made in talks with nurses in the NHS.
However, he said he had been ‘disappointed’ to see the action by junior doctors.