‘THE Junior Doctors Committee has made clear the decision that further industrial action is inevitable and that we will consider escalating any action to achieve our aim to end the imposition,’ Dr Johann Malawana, chairman of the committee said in an email to BMA members.
The email was sent after a decisive meeting of the BMA junior doctors committee over the weekend.
Malawana said that notices of strike dates will be sent out ‘in very short order’. The two days of strike action that junior doctors have taken so far, have been done so with emergency cover.
This means that when junior doctors were on their picket lines, if an emergency occurred they were prepared to walk back into work to deal with that emergency.
An escalation of action can include a ‘full walk out’ which means striking without the proviso that if there is an emergency they will come back to work.
Malawana added: ‘We also know – and the public understand this – that if the government wants junior doctors to take the brunt of delivering more services across seven days, they need to put their money where their mouth is. It couldn’t be clearer to me that we now have a single and determined purpose: to end the imposition.’
The BMA said: ‘The junior doctors committee are deeply unhappy with the way the Secretary of State and government have handled the contract and are looking at future options. An announcement will be made in due course.’
Junior doctor Dr Ruhe Chowdhury said: ‘We fully support the statement sent out by the BMA and it represents very clearly the views of grass roots doctors, junior doctors as well as the view of the entire NHS .’
