Junior doctors have voted to strike after a ballot of members of the British Medical Association backed industrial action in its continuing dispute over pay.
More than 47,600 junior doctors in England were eligible to vote in the BMA’s ballot. Almost 37,000 votes were cast and 98% of those voted in favour of strike action, meaning this was the largest-ever turnout for a ballot of doctors by the BMA and a record number of junior doctors voting for strike action.
The BMA said that successive governments have overseen 15 years of real-terms pay cuts for junior doctors in England, amounting to a 26.1% decline in pay since 2008/09. The BMA has repeatedly called on the government to reverse the cuts, to retain doctors in the NHS and alleviate the staffing crisis.
With no meaningful engagement from the UK government on pay, despite several letters and the BMA’s meeting with the health secretary in January, junior doctors in England will now prepare for a 72-hour strike, a “full walk-out”, which would include the withdrawal of emergency care. This will take place in March but no specific date has been set as yet.
Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairs of the BMA junior doctors’ committee, said: “This vote shows, without a shadow of a doubt, the strength of feeling among most of England’s junior doctors. We are frustrated, in despair and angry and we have voted in our thousands to say, ‘in the name of our profession, our patients, and our NHS, doctors won’t take it anymore.’
Junior doctors 72-hour strike
Nurses’ strikes escalate amid government inaction
“The government has only itself to blame, standing by in silent indifference as our members are forced to take this difficult decision.”
The government excluded junior doctors in England – any hospital clinician with up to eight years’ fully-qualified service – from the pay award process this year because their contracts are subject to a multi-year pay deal which awards them a 2% increase for 2022/23.
Laurenson and Trivedi said that with inflation at over 10%, junior doctors were working more than a month for free. “Added to that, ever-worsening conditions mean more doctors are being lured away from the NHS to seek better-paid medical careers and quality of life elsewhere.
“There is no doubt that this is a crisis, but it is of the government’s making – so far refusing to have any meaningful discussions with us about pay. The road to recovery must start with ministers listening to us and paying us what we’re worth.”
Junior doctors who are members of the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association have already decided to go on strike with 97% voting in favour, on a turnout of 74.8%. The HCSA today announced that its junior doctor members will strike on 15 March.
The Department of Health and Social Care said that together with an 8.2% pay rise over four years the current pay deal also introduced higher salary bands for the most experienced staff and increased night-shift rates.
Health secretary Steve Barclay said: “We hugely value the work of junior doctors and it is deeply disappointing some union members have voted for strike action.”
Reaction from NHS employers
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said the junior doctors’ 72-hour strike would be a major blow for the NHS and the people who rely on its services.
“Junior doctors represent a critical part of the NHS’s workforce spanning a huge range of specialties and services, including emergency care, so there is no doubt that these strikes will be hugely disruptive and worrying for many people.
“While health leaders will look to secure cover from consultants and SAS doctors on these days, unfortunately we are likely to still see the cancellation of many non-urgent procedures, checks and other appointments so that the most life-critical care can be prioritised.”
He said that the last junior doctors’ strike in 2016 led to the cancellation of nearly 300,000 outpatient appointments and thousands of elective procedures being postponed.
“What is perhaps most worrying is that the 72-hour walk-out is the BMA’s starting position and that it has said emergency care will not be excluded: if the government continues not to budge, the next stage of industrial action does not bear thinking about.
“The government may have hoped that the industrial action facing the NHS would peter out. However, as the sheer scale of the BMA’s ballot outcome shows, as well as the fact that many health leaders have told us that more of their staff have joined unions since the start of this dispute, clearly this is not a situation that will resolve itself.
“The prime minister has a choice to make, which is to either seek some resolution with the trade unions, or to jeopardise his commitment to cut NHS waiting lists.”
Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive at NHS Providers, said: “Trust leaders have been bracing themselves for the outcome of the BMA’s ballot of junior doctors. Today’s overwhelming vote in favour of industrial action has confirmed these fears.
“An unprecedented 72-hour strike next month is extremely worrying as the NHS battles to cope with the effects of the most widespread industrial action in its history, soon to include a 48-hour walkout by nurses from 1 March.”
She added: “Nobody wants this, but burnt-out frontline staff feel they’ve been pushed to this point by challenges including the rising cost of living, below-inflation pay and vast workforce shortages.
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“While we wait for the BMA to confirm the exact date of this walkout, it remains in the government’s gift to bring this spiralling disruption to an immediate end by talking to the unions about pay for this financial year.”
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