Doctors in training have threatened to walk out ‘indefinitely’ if the government refuses to give in to their demands for an inflationary pay rise.
The British Medical Association has told ministers they must raise wages by at least 35 per cent if they want to end the union action.
It warned its row is not a “flash in the pan” and it is willing to revoke members “again and again” to preserve a strike mandate.
The alarming warning would further increase waiting lists, which are already a record 7.4 million, and make patients wait longer in pain.
Since December, more than half a million appointments and surgeries have been canceled due to NHS strikes by junior doctors, nurses and physiotherapists.
Trainee doctors are on a three-day strike that NHS chiefs say could cause ‘significant disruption’ to healthcare. Pictured: Striking members of the British Medical Association outside Bristol Royal Infirmary
More than half a million NHS appointments in England have been canceled since December due to healthcare strikes, official figures show
Up to 47,600 medics below the rank of consultant launched their latest 72-hour walkout at 7 a.m. Wednesday, including from cancer departments and A&E.
Hundreds of them staged a vociferous protest outside the NHS ConfedExpo conference, while Health Secretary Steve Barclay delivered a speech to health leaders inside.
Dr. Robert Laurenson, co-chair of the BMA Committee on Young Doctors, told reporters, “There will come a time when the inevitable will happen — it will probably look like an indefinite cessation of labor.”
He said the commission will “continually assess” when an indefinite strike can begin and it can coordinate strikes with advisers if they also vote to strike in their own ballot, which is currently open.
It could be that counselors and junior doctors alternately strike back-to-back as they “unite against the government,” he added.
This could potentially lead to appointments being canceled for a week at a time.
Trainee doctors have already vowed to strike at least three days a month until the dispute ends and the BMA will re-vote members from June 19 to August 31, which would extend its mandate until March next year.
Dr. Laurenson said, “If need be, [we will] vote again, and if need be, we will vote again, and we will vote again, and we will continue until our members tell us to stop or they accept whatever deal the government is willing to make that is reasonable.
“This is not a flash in the pan cry for pay just because of the cost of living crisis – this is something that has been building for 15 years.
“It has to be a serious package about the full recovery of wages from 2008.”
He said the government could achieve this 35 percent increase by “single digits or very low double digits” over a number of years.
However, a source in Whitehall says the union demanded a 49 percent wage increase when proposing a multi-year deal during recent negotiations.
Many key NHS figures left the NHS annual conference early to manage the fallout from the strike.
NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard said the strike is a “serious risk to patient safety” and that union action “creates risk and unrest”.
She said tens of thousands of appointments will be affected.
Before leaving the conference to coordinate the London office’s strike response, she told delegates on Wednesday: “We must prioritize the management of what is a serious business continuity incident and therefore a serious risk to patient safety .’
She added: ‘As much as we learn from managing every action, every time it happens, it creates risk and anxiety and distracts from our priorities, especially elective recovery.
‘More than half a million appointments have already been rescheduled. Many of those people will have waited months.
“It is likely that we will see tens of thousands more affected this week.
“So while the NHS will of course handle the incident as best it can, I know we are all hoping for a speedy resolution.”
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents health organizations and is a co-organiser of the conference, said: ‘The suggestion that junior doctors could go on regular strikes for consecutive days each month for a year or more will be extremely worrying for the public. healthcare leaders.
“If further union action is also coordinated with strikes by consulting physicians, when they announce they have a mandate, then patient safety will be further compromised.
“We know that health services in many areas are already facing serious staff shortages, and with the NHS at over 120,000 vacancies, further union action is very likely to jeopardize one of the prime minister’s key missions, which is to reduce waiting lists.”
Mr Barclay said it was in his best interest for the dispute to be resolved and he stands ready for ‘further discussions’ with junior doctors.
He told delegates at the conference: “It is in my interest because of the five priorities that the Prime Minister has set out, whoever sits next to me – reducing waiting times – is clearly confident that we are making progress in terms of working closely with our clinicians , working effectively and how we do it.
“As for the doctors in training, we have had intensive consultations for three weeks, we have responded constructively to their request to bring in a highly experienced intermediary, but so far we have not seen any movement from the 35 percent. requirement set by the doctors in training.
“I think there needs to be movement on both sides.
“We outlined as part of our conversations both an acknowledgment of the offer we made in a lump sum, and our desire to work on a broader suite of early-stage physicians.
“When I think about the other challenges the government has, and when we make these decisions on an intergovernmental basis, how do we address the inflation challenge; how we reduce debt, how we grow the economy, and we need to balance that with the needs of the NHS.
“Within the NHS we need to think not only about the importance of pay, but also about the importance of the numbers, we also need to think about the importance of investing in the NHS estate.
‘Then we also have to invest in technology.
“So there is a combination of things, but we want to work constructively and are ready for further discussions.”