Junior doctors to go on strike for five days during election campaign

Junior doctors in England are to stage a five-day strike in the run-up to the General Election.

Talks had recently reopened with a view to ending the long-running dispute over pay between medics in training and the Government.

After the July 4 election was called last week, the British Medical Association (BMA) gave the Government “a final opportunity to make an offer and avoid strikes” but “this opportunity has not been taken up”.

The union announced that junior doctors will stage a full walkout from 7am on June 27 to 7am on July 2.

The co-chairmen of the BMA junior doctors committee, Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, said in a statement: “We made clear to the Government that we would strike unless discussions ended in a credible pay offer.”

They added: “For more than 18 months we have been asking Rishi Sunak to put forward proposals to restore the pay junior doctors have lost over the past 15 years – equal to more than a quarter in real terms.

“When we entered mediation with Government this month we did so under the impression that we had a functioning government that would soon be making an offer. Clearly no offer is now forthcoming. Junior doctors are fed up and out of patience.

“Even at this late stage Mr Sunak has the opportunity to show that he cares about the NHS and its workers.

“It is finally time for him to make a concrete commitment to restore doctors’ pay.

“If during this campaign he makes such a public commitment that is acceptable to the BMA’s junior doctors committee, then no strikes need go ahead.”

The strike will come as a significant blow to Mr Sunak and will conclude just two days before the election.

Just two weeks ago the Government and the BMA announced that they had entered mediated talks to try and prevent further walkouts.

The walkout at the end of June will be the 11th strike by junior doctors in the current dispute.

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The last strike by junior doctors, from February 24 to 28 this year, led to 91,048 appointments, operations and procedures being postponed.

Asked about the dispute on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: “I want to be really upfront with junior doctors this side of the election – the 35% pay claim they’ve put in … I’m just not going to be able to afford that on day one of a Labour government.

“We’re going to have to work together and negotiate on pay and recognise – as was the case with the last Labour government who inherited a similar mess – getting to fair pay is a journey, not an event.

“I’m willing to negotiate on pay and those wider conditions that junior doctors are working in because they complain about their rotations, their placements.

“I’ve heard some awful cases including a junior doctor whose partner had cancer, they both had kids, and the NHS showed no flexibility whatsoever about the placement for that junior doctor until there was a media outcry about the case – that’s not treating junior doctors with respect.

“They are the future of the NHS and I’m willing to sit down and negotiate on those wider conditions so that junior doctors are genuinely valued and look forward to a career in the NHS rather than thinking about whether they’re going to stick it out because things are so terrible under the Tories.”

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive at NHS Providers, said: “This announcement marks a worrying escalation in the long dispute between the Government and junior doctors. This strike will inevitably hit patients hard.

“Resolving the industrial dispute must now be a top priority. Not doing so will come at too high a price for patients and the NHS itself.

“Nearly 1.5 million appointments have been delayed since industrial action began, with strikes having now cost the NHS an estimated £3 billion.

“We cannot go on like this. Politicians and unions must urgently find a way to resolve all disputes for the sake of patients, staff and the NHS.”