RESIDENT doctors in England will strike for six days from 7th April after rejecting a government pay offer that would spread already inadequate increases over three years, on top of a pay review body recommendation of just 3.5%.
The British Medical Association simultaneously announced it would ballot hospital consultants and specialist, associate specialist and specialty doctors for industrial action.
Consultant pay is still a quarter lower in real terms than in 2008/09.
SAS doctors, the specialist, associate specialist, and specialty grade who form the backbone of day-to-day hospital medicine, have seen the same scale of erosion, with pay down 24% in real terms since 2008/09. The government’s latest award does nothing to reverse either.
Resident doctors, whose dispute stretches back years and through 11 rounds of strike action, voted 93% in favour of continuing to fight on a turnout of more than half the eligible workforce.
RDC chair Dr Jack Fletcher said: ‘Ministers cannot be shocked that 93% of doctors have voted to strike after being recommended a pay cut this year by the same health secretary who promised a journey to fair pay.’
BMA consultants committee co-chairs Dr Shanu Datta and Dr Helen Neary said talks with the government had yielded nothing of substance.
‘We have not seen anything like enough progress to give consultants any confidence that their concerns are being taken seriously,’ they said, warning ministers to: ‘Ask themselves whether they can afford to have all hospital doctors with a mandate to take industrial action at the same time.’
SAS committee chair Dr Ujjwala Mohite said her members were: ‘The NHS’s unsung heroes — dedicated and expert clinicians but under-appreciated and undervalued.’
Despite signalling their willingness to act, she said: ‘We’ve seen far too little progress from the government in talks, and now ministers and the DDRB have wasted another opportunity to address pay erosion.’
The consultant and SAS ballots run from 11th May to 6th July.
The resident doctors’ walkout begins at 7am on 7th April and ends at 6:59am on 13th April. The BMA said it could still be called off if the government moved quickly.
