Junior doctors in England have voted to extend their strike mandate by another six months.
Ninety-eight per cent of junior doctor members who voted in the British Medical Association’s ballot supported renewing its mandate for industrial action and action short of a strike until 19 September 2024. Turnout was 62%.
No further strike dates have yet been scheduled.
BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi called on the health secretary to come forward with a “credible” pay offer as soon as possible to avert any further strikes.
Junior doctors strikes
They said: “It has now been a year since we began strike action. That is a year of strikes too many.
“The government believed it could ignore, delay, and offer excuses long enough that we would simply give up. That attitude has now led to the NHS wasting £3bn covering the strikes. This is more than double the cost of settling our whole claim. And as we see in the results of today’s ballot, delaying tactics will not work: doctors are still determined to see their pay cuts reversed, and they are willing to keep striking another six months to achieve that.
“The government should see the urgency of the situation. Rather than waste time dragging out talks, they can come forward with a credible offer on pay right now. They don’t need to be in the same situation six months from now, with even more taxpayer money wasted. Instead they could be celebrating a revitalised and reinvigorated junior doctor workforce, one that feels that their value has started to be restored. That would be an achievement worth celebrating for everyone and begin to finally turn the tide on the deteriorating workforce crisis.”
Junior doctors are demanding their pay be restored to 2008 levels, potentially meaning around a 35% pay increase, althoughreports have suggested that the BMA would consider pay gradually being restored over several years.
Last year a 6.5% pay increase was imposed for 2023-24, after the government accepted the independent pay review body’s recommendations.
Junior doctor members of the BMA have been joined in recent strikes by members of the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA), including six days of strike action that took place in January and a further period in late February, HCSA’s strike mandate runs until June 2024.
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