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Outrage over junior doctors' longest strike in NHS history

Outrage over junior doctors’ longest strike in NHS history: Tories call NINE days of Xmas and NY walk-outs a ‘slap in face’ for patients as health chiefs warn BMA’s action will bring ailing hospitals to a standstill during busiest time of year

  • One MP said junior medics should read their Hippocratic oath before striking
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Striking junior doctors were today urged to ‘put patients first’ and call off nine days of upcoming walk-outs over Christmas and New Year.

NHS bosses have raised ‘extreme concern’ over the planned walk-outs, orchestrated by the British Medical Association (BMA) to cause carnage during the busiest time of year for hospitals.

Thousands of junior doctors will abandon posts for three days before Xmas, starting on December 20. Another six days of action — the longest in the health service’s 75-year history — are pencilled in for January 2.

The walkouts are likely to coincide with a surge in winter viruses as well as casualties from Christmas parties.

Tory MPs last night labelled slammed the BMA for organising another round of NHS strikes. Deputy chair of the Conservative party Lee Anderson branded it a ‘slap in the face for patients’. 

Junior doctors in England have voted to stage fresh strikes in December and January after talks between the Government and British Medical Association broke down

Another pleaded with junior doctors, who can earn up to £60,000, to just accept the Government’s pay offer like other NHS staff groups. 

Nurses, physios and paramedics are among NHS staff to have called off strikes after their unions accepted pay deals.

Consultants have negotiated a new offer and will ballot members in the New Year.

Paul Bristow, who sits on the Commons health and social care committee, said: ‘The junior doctors have clearly not got the memo that the time for striking over.

‘The consultants have reached a deal and the RMT rail union has reached a deal and they have got back to work.’

He added: ‘It’s time the junior doctors put patients first, accept a fair offer and call off their strikes.

Junior doctors’ pay – the truth

Junior doctors were awarded a pay rise of 6 per cent plus a consolidated payment of £1,250 in July, in line with the recommendation of the Independent Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration.

The package was equivalent to an average increase of 8.1 per cent from 2022/23 to 2023/24, or more than 10 per cent for those in their first year of training.

Average basic pay for a first year doctor increased from £29,384 to £32,397, while a junior doctor who had been a specialty trainee for six years or more saw their pay rise from £58,398 to £63,152.

Some have also benefited from overtime and enhanced rates for working unsociable hours.

Junior doctors pocketed the extra money despite vowing to continue striking, with some boasting the additional income would subsidise further walkouts.

Steve Barclay, the then health secretary, and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had described the settlement as final and insisted there would be no more talks about pay.

But the British Medical Association has held further negotiations with officials and ministers in the Department of Health and Social Care since October, resulting an offer of an extra 3 per cent, which has been rejected by union representatives.

The BMA has claimed that junior doctors have seen their pay eroded by 35 per cent in real terms over the past 15 years.

The trainee medics have been demanding full pay restoration and have said they would not settle for anything less, although senior figures within the union have suggested they may compromise.

‘The last thing the NHS needs at this time of year, when it is dealing with the added pressures of winter, is doctors walking out.’

Mr Anderson said: ‘This is nothing but a slap in the face for patients.

‘Millions of appointments have already been cancelled thanks to strikes.

‘The BMA knows exactly the harm they’re causing by walking out over the busiest time of the year.

‘It’s about time the BMA read the Hippocratic Oath and put an end to these strikes.’

Ministers and representatives from the BMA have been locked in new negotiations for five weeks, trying to find a resolution to the long-running pay dispute.

But the union said its junior doctors committee voted unanimously for further strikes after accusing the Department for Health and Social Care of failing to put forward a ‘credible’ offer.

It means junior doctors in England will now walk out from 7am on December 20 to 7am on December 23 and from 7am on January 3 to 7am on January 9.

Junior doctors were offered a 3 per cent rise on top of the average 8.8 per cent increase they already pocketed in the summer.

But the BMA said the cash would have been split unevenly across different medical grades and would ‘still amount to pay cuts for many doctors’.

Health commentators expressed dismay at the news, with many raising concerns for patient safety.

NHS leaders have said they will prioritise urgent and emergency care to ‘protect patient safety’ during the walkouts.

Sir Stephen Powis, national medical director for the NHS in England, warned that the service is likely to face ‘another very challenging winter’.

He said: ‘It is extremely concerning that the health service is set to face another escalation in industrial action, with the longest consecutive strike in NHS history now planned during one of the most challenging periods of the year. 

‘Staff across the country have worked incredibly hard to ensure urgent and life-saving care has continued during what is now a full calendar year of strike action, while also delivering progress on our recovery plans.

‘As the NHS continues to prepare for what is likely to be another very challenging winter, we will also now prepare to mitigate the impact of the latest strikes this Christmas, once more prioritising urgent and emergency care to protect patient safety and ensure those in life-saving emergencies can receive the best possible care.’

BMA junior doctors’ committee co-chairman Dr Robert Laurenson said the offer on the table from Government was ‘completely insufficient’.

He told LBC radio: ‘After five weeks of talks, not enough progress was made and every single member of our committee voted unanimously for further strike action because the 3 per cent offer was completely insufficient to actually begin to address 26 per cent pay erosion that doctors have faced over the last 15 years.

‘All we’re looking for is for that 26 per cent to be restored so we go back to a 0 per cent change from 2008, and that just looks like a doctor starting on about £21 an hour.

Junior doctors will stage the longest strike in NHS history – putting patients at risk and piling more strain on hospitals at their busiest time of year. A demonstration by junior doctors at the Conservative Party Conference in October 

Lee Anderson, a Conservative Party deputy chairman, said the industrial action should end

‘We’re looking at something that actually begins to restore pay for doctors and sets up a road path for the full pay restoration – and, let me just make this clear, we are not asking for this all in one go.’

Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairman of the committee, also told BBC Breakfast: ‘We’ve called these strikes because we haven’t been able to make enough progress to be able to turn the tide of pay erosion for our doctors.

‘The offer that was put forward would have still amounted to a real-terms pay cut for almost 50 per cent of the doctors that I represent this year.

‘And that’s simply not enough to turn the tide of the plummeting morale and retention that you get when you have further pay cuts and pay cuts every year.’

He added that the tone was ‘very different’ during recent negotiations: ‘It seemed very positive, productive, and we were working towards what we hoped would be the end of our talks.

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‘But we had a deadline – a prearranged deadline agreed by both sides – and, ultimately, we weren’t able to shape a deal that we could take to our membership.

‘Ultimately we do want to reach a deal, but we know what our members want, and this deal was not that, as shown by the vote in our committee.’

Dr Trivedi said the talks ‘don’t have to stop’ but the Government has previously said it will not enter talks while strikes have been called.

Health Secretary Victoria Atkins has said the Government would ‘immediately look to come back to the table’ if the junior doctors’ strikes were called off.

She warned that the walkouts will put extra pressure on the NHS during the busy winter period and ‘risk patient safety’.

Her comments come after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged at the start of the year to cut waiting lists and newly appointed Ms Atkins has made tackling the disputes with doctors one of her top priorities.

Ms Atkins language has proved markedly different to that of predecessor Steve Barclay, who referred to the BMA as having a politically ‘militant stance’.

NHS leader have also voiced their concern with Sir Julian Hartley, of NHS Providers, which represents health trusts, saying: ‘This is the outcome trust leaders were dreading. 

He added: ‘This will be the longest strike in NHS history during the busiest and toughest time of the year for the NHS. 

‘These strikes will undermine efforts to cut waiting lists further, they’ll have a serious knock-on effect.’ 

NHS figures show 7.8million patients are currently needing routine treatment, up on the 4.5m logged pre-pandemic.

Last winter, which also saw NHS staff take to the picket lines, was one of the worst on record for the health service in England.

The NHS has now dealt with a full calendar year of strikes, with the first taking place on December 15, 2022.

Britain’s Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said it’s ‘disappointing’ new strikes are happening

Strikes by doctors, nurses and physiotherapists have already led to the cancellation of more than a million appointments and operations, costing the NHS more than £1.3billion this year. 

While many of the staff groups have resolved their formal disputes over pay, doctors and radiographers are yet to come to a resolution with the Government.

Consultant doctors from the BMA have reached a deal with the Government which will see consultants earn more money from January 2024, although it will not be paid until April 2024.

England’s top hospital doctors are now voting on the deal, which would see them get a pay rise of between 6 and 19.6 per cent.

Talks with specialist, associate specialist and specialty doctors (SAS) in England are continuing.

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  • Posted on December 6, 2023