Junior doctors in England are going on strike again after pay talks collapse
Junior doctors are to organize a new strike action in England for the tenth time after talks between their union and the government failed again.
Ministers, health officials and representatives of the British Medical Association (BMA) had been in negotiations for weeks since last month’s record six-day break in an attempt to find a solution to the pay dispute.
But the Guardian understands that a last-ditch meeting on Thursday between Victoria Atkins, the Health Secretary, and the BMA did not result in an immediate solution to end the industrial action.
As a result, the BMA’s junior doctors committee has unanimously voted for four more days of strike action this month.
Junior doctors in England will walk away for five days, from 7am on February 24 to midnight on February 28.
The move was announced a day after the latest NHS figures showed that 7.6 million healthcare treatments were ready to be carried out in England at the end of December, covering 6.37 million patients.
The BMA’s announcement will alarm medical leaders and NHS bosses, who are increasingly concerned about the deteriorating health of many of those on waiting lists.
The Guardian last month revealed a warning from health officials that thousands of cancer patients could die prematurely if ministers and junior doctors do not urgently resolve their bitter pay row.
On Thursday, the latest performance statistics showed that more than a third of cancer patients in England faced potentially fatal delays, with thousands of people forced to wait months before they could start treatment.
Earlier this week, Rishi Sunak was accused of personally blocking a deal to end doctors’ strikes, despite warnings from the Department of Health and NHS England that waiting lists would continue to rise unless the industrial dispute was resolved.
Sources said it had been made clear to the Prime Minister ‘abundantly and repeatedly’ that no progress would be made on his pledge to reduce NHS waiting lists until a deal was struck. The government said the reports were untrue.
On Monday, Sunak admitted he had failed to deliver on his promise to cut NHS waiting lists, following months of strikes by NHS staff. Last year, he made reducing the number of patients waiting for treatment one of the top five priorities of his leadership.
Last month’s six-day strike was the ninth time in the past year that junior doctors have stopped working and the longest impact on the health care system since its founding in 1948.
With no end in sight to the dispute between the government and junior doctors, who make up about half the medical workforce, oncologists and cancer leaders said the standoff was unnecessarily reducing the chances of survival for sick patients.
Junior doctors in England are currently being asked whether they will continue to take industrial action in their long-running pay dispute. The BMA is re-voting members on whether to extend industrial action for a further six months beyond February.
The current mandate expires at the end of this month. Unions involved in disputes must vote their members again every six months on whether to continue strike action.
If there is a yes vote, the mandate for strike action in England will be extended until September.
Last month, the BMA’s advisory members narrowly rejected the government’s revised wage offer by 51.1%. The deal would have given doctors a pay increase of between 6% and 19.6%.
It is believed that the NHS strikes over the past 15 months have caused a financial cost of more than £1.5 billion. Strikes by various staff groups, including doctors, nurses, paramedics and physiotherapists, have led to more than 1.3 million appointments, procedures and surgeries being rescheduled.