JUNIOR doctors in England WILL walk out for 72 hours in March if the ballot for industrial action is successful, says the BMA.
The BMA yesterday told the government that, if a ballot for industrial action is successful, junior doctors will begin their action with a 72-hour full walkout in March.
The ballot across England begins on Monday 9th January; the BMA is still urging the Secretary of State for Health to meet with doctors and negotiate a solution to avoid the need for industrial action.
But Steve Barclay is the first Health Secretary for over 50 years to continue to ignore all invitations from the BMA to meet with doctors to discuss their pay, making attempts to find a negotiated settlement virtually impossible.
Successive governments have overseen fifteen years of real-terms pay cuts for junior doctors in England, which amounts to a staggering and unjustifiable 26.1% decline in pay since 2008/09.
The BMA has repeatedly called on the government to reverse these pay cuts, to keep doctors in the NHS and alleviate the staffing crisis which is preventing the NHS from tackling record waiting lists and giving patients the care they need.
Patients are suffering and exhausted, staff are burning out and leaving the NHS and yet this government fails to see the crisis in front of it, ignoring all the evidence to the contrary and preferring to treat the public as fools with assurances that the NHS has all the resources it needs.
Ministers have ignored all requests to meet and discuss doctors’ pay with the BMA. With the government’s door firmly shut to dialogue, let alone negotiations, the Association says there is no other option left than to ballot junior doctors in England for strike action.
Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairs of the BMA junior doctors committee, said:
‘The Prime Minister says his door, and that of the Health Secretary, are “always open”. This simply is not true. All our calls to meet, and letters to the Health Secretary and his immediate predecessors, have been ignored. When we are faced with such resolute ongoing silence, despite all our attempts to start negotiations, then we are left with no choice but to act.
‘Junior doctors are not worth a quarter less than they were fifteen years ago nor do they deserve to be valued so little by their own government.
‘Pay erosion, exhaustion and despair are forcing junior doctors out of the NHS, pushing waiting lists even higher as patients suffer needlessly.
‘The government’s refusal to address fifteen years of pay erosion has given junior doctors no choice but to ballot for industrial action. If the government won’t fight for our health service, then we will.
‘It is particularly galling for junior doctors to see the government repeatedly justify huge real-terms pay cuts for NHS staff by claiming that these have been made by so-called “independent” pay review bodies, free from government interference.
‘The reality is that the doctors’ pay review body has been constrained by political interference for more than a decade.
‘Even after recommendations have been made to increase junior doctors’ pay, the government has completely ignored them and has asked the pay review body to completely exclude junior doctors from its recommendations.
‘When even the pay review process – broken as it is – is telling ministers to act, you know something has gone seriously wrong.’
Meanwhile, responding to NHS pressure and the Prime Minister’s speech on Wednesday, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Pat Cullen, said in a letter to health secretary Steve Barclay:
‘Dear Secretary of State,
‘In the first week of January, many have come to expect performance challenges in the NHS.
‘However, I am compelled to put on record that what is unfolding in England’s health service this week is far from ordinary “winter pressures”.
‘Nor can COVID and ’flu be blamed for the current performance of the NHS.
‘In his speech this afternoon, the Prime Minister’s language appeared detached from the reality of what is happening and why.
‘As far as the current NHS situation, it focused on false promises and hollow boasts when practical and urgent measures are required on the part of government.
‘I fear that, when so many nursing professionals are considering their future in this profession and record numbers have already left, this situation will push even more out of the NHS.
‘Nursing staff are being forced to care for patients in corridors and other inappropriate locations against their own clinical judgement.
‘This practice is grossly unsafe for the patient and the registered professional alike and the risk to life is severe.
‘Furthermore, nursing these patients, many of whom are elderly and vulnerable, in such conditions is undignified and demeaning and should not be tolerated.
‘Nursing leaders tell me of deep distress experienced when their teams are not able to give high-quality patient care in their areas of practice.
‘They can see the systemic failures, due to years of underinvestment in capacity across all care settings, culminating in increased urgent and emergency presentation.
‘This pressure is not constrained to Emergency Departments either.
‘I hear that every square inch of hospital space is being used to add more patients, in escalation beds, including by closing existing services.
‘Systemic failures include the clear and significant lack of capacity and workforce in social care, including nursing homes, in primary care and in acute inpatient care.
‘In most acute hospitals there are at least 200 patients that could be cared for in a non-acute setting.
‘Many nursing home and social care providers struggle to recruit the registered and non-registered nurses with the skills they require.
‘This has a massive impact on patient flow both into and out of the hospital.
‘The vacancies in GP practices and lack of primary care provision puts even more pressure on acute services.
‘The lack of primary care infrastructure means that 111 primary recommendations at times are to divert patients to hospitals.
‘The RCN, supported by NHS and social care leaders, professional bodies, think tanks and Parliamentary committees, has resoundingly concluded that a lack of workforce is one of the root causes of today’s situation.
‘The responsibility for equipping publicly funded NHS and social care services so that they can meet the needs of the population lies squarely with the UK Government.
‘It is disingenuous to insist that these services are adequately resourced, when the evidence clearly demonstrates that they are at the point of collapse.
‘You are already aware that in two weeks there will be two successive days of industrial action by members of the Royal College of Nursing in more locations across England than in December.
‘My members are saying “enough is enough” for their patients as well as themselves. I urge you to show a renewed sense of urgency in opening negotiations on the current NHS pay award so that this situation can be avoided later in the month.
‘Yours sincerely,
‘Pat Cullen’
