The British Medical Association (BMA) announced resident doctors will go on strike this week, escalating a dispute ministers warn could further strain the NHS.
Resident doctors in England confirmed this afternoon (15th December) that they will go ahead with a five-day strike after rejecting the government’s latest attempt to resolve a running dispute over pay and jobs.
The BMA said its members voted against the proposal, which was put forward last week by Health Secretary Wes Streeting. The walk-out is due to begin at 7am on Wednesday 17th December and end at 7am on Monday 22nd December.
The offer focused on expanding training places to allow doctors to begin specialist training earlier in their careers. However, it didn’t include a pay increase for the current financial year.
In a survey of BMA members – comprised of 35,107 doctors – 83% voted against the deal, with a turnout of 65%.
The BMA described the proposals as ‘too little, too late’ to prevent further industrial actions. The strike will be the 17th staged by resident doctors since the dispute began in March 2023.
Hospitals are already under pressure from an early winter surge in demand, driven in part by what officials have described as a wave of virulent ‘super flu’. Health leaders have warned the walkout could worsen disruption across the NHS.
In response to the vote, Streeting criticised the decision to strike, calling it a ‘self-indulgent, irresponsible, and dangerous’ act that would affect patients and staff at the NHS’s ‘moment of maximum danger’. He also rejected the doctors’ demand for a 26% pay rise, describing it as a ‘fantasy demand’.
On 12th December NHS England warned that between 5,000 and 8,000 hospital beds could be filled with flu patients by the end of the week.
Against this backdrop Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, issued a statement prior to the result of the BMA vote, and she said that this winter looks like it will be an ‘especially worrying one’.
‘[A]long with the upsurge in flu there is the possibility of another strike by resident doctors next week – the last thing anyone in ill health needs,’ Abrahams said. ‘Against this miserable context we hope and pray that the resident doctors decide not to exercise their right to withdraw their labour and that the revised deal offered by the government brings about a permanent end to a dispute that’s been going on for far too long.’
Yet the strikes are set to go ahead and Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee, defended the decision.
‘Our members have considered the government’s offer, and their resounding response should leave the health secretary in no doubt about how badly he has fumbled his opportunity to end industrial actions,’ Dr Fletcher remarked.
‘There are no new jobs in this offer. He has simply cannibalised those jobs which already existed for the sake of ‘new’ jobs on paper.’
Resident doctors’ pay has increased by almost 29% over the past three years, but the BMA is seeking a further 26% rise over the coming years to restore salaries to 2008–09 levels in real terms.
Streeting said the government’s proposal would have reduced competition for jobs and increased earnings, but accused the union of prioritising pay demands over patient safety.
Dr Fletcher said the strike was still avoidable, adding: ‘We’re willing to work to find a solution if he is.’
Image: Shutterstock
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