Resident doctors in England have announced new strike dates, following the continuing refusal of the Labour government to make a credible offer on jobs or pay.
The strike will run from 7am on 17th December to 7am on 22nd December.
The announcement comes as new evidence of the extent of the jobs shortage emerged this month.
Thousands of doctors were turned away from Internal Medicine Training posts, with places now so restricted that candidates could have a PhD, have authored a medical textbook chapter and published a scientific paper and still not even get an interview.
Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee (RDC), said: ‘With the government failing to put forward a credible plan to fix the jobs crisis for resident doctors at the same time as pushing a real terms pay cut for them, we have no choice but to announce more strike dates.
‘However, these do not need to go ahead. Gradually raising pay over a few years and some common-sense fixes to the job security of our doctors are well within the reach of this government.
‘It would ensure both the long-term strength of our healthcare workforce and spare the country the indignity of seeing unemployed doctors at a time patients are queuing up to even see a GP.
‘This month we’ve seen the full farcical extent of the jobs crisis, with second-year doctors applying for training posts being asked to provide evidence of experience well beyond what would have previously been asked of them.
‘It is precisely this sort of situation which is driving doctors away from jobs and to the picket line. But it is not too late for the government to get a grip on the situation.’
Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday morning, Dr Tom Dolphin, former Chair of the Junior Doctors Committee and a Consultant Anaesthetist, was asked for a response to a furious tirade from Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
Nick Robinson said: ‘ “Irresponsible, reckless, designed to maximise disruption at the most dangerous time of the year” what do you say to that?’
Dr Dolphin replied: ‘I think that what’s irresponsible is failing to grasp the scale of the problem that we have when it comes to resident doctors and the NHS workforce generally.
‘We know that we need more doctors in the NHS, we know that we need specialist GPs. But we’ve got thousands of resident doctors who can’t get training posts this year and are facing not being able to progress in their careers.
‘We know that we need them to be able to train so they can become specialist doctors for the future.’
Robinson said: ‘The government recognises that there is a problem, that there are more applicants for training places than training places. There is an offer of a thousand extra training places.’
Dr Dolphin replied: ‘There is nothing stopping the government getting round the table with the BMA. We’ve been trying to get them to do that for some time. They’ve obviously had a couple of weeks since the last strikes when they could have made another offer and they haven’t come to us with one. So they’ve got another two weeks until these strikes to try and avert these strikes.’
Robinson asked: ‘When it comes to training places, what is your proposal?’
Dr Dolphin replied: ‘When we’re talking about the 1,000-2,000 posts that the government is talking about, that doesn’t touch the sides. We’ve got 30,000 people applying for 2,000 jobs, so 2,000 isn’t going to cut it.’
Robinson asked: ‘Why do you think that you should get above-inflation pay rises when NHS budgets are stretched?’
Dr Dolphin replied: ‘The government thinks we deserve more cuts in pay because they’ve proposed that we have another real terms pay cut next year. They suggest that we need to have at least 1% less than inflation currently is. So the government clearly thinks that we’re overpaid at the moment and wants to give us less. Doctors aren’t going to stand for that. We know our value.’