Doctors in England to go on strike for five days in November

Doctors in England will go on strike for five days in November in an ongoing row over jobs and pay.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said resident doctors will strike on five consecutive days from 7am on November 14 to 7am on November 19.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting described the move as “preposterous” and accused the BMA of “blocking a better deal for doctors”.

Resident doctors, previously named junior doctors, make up around half of all doctors in the NHS.

Dr Jack Fletcher, chairman of the BMA’s resident doctors committee (RDC), said: “This is not where we wanted to be.

“We have spent the last week in talks with Government, pressing the Health Secretary to end the scandal of doctors going unemployed.

“We know from our own survey half of second year doctors in England are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment, and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.

“We talked with the Government in good faith – keen for the Health Secretary to see that a deal that included options to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over several years, giving newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the next four years.

“We hoped the Government would see that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the public and our patients, and would also help stop our doctors leaving the NHS.

“Better employment prospects and restoring pay are a credible way forward that would work for doctors, work for Government, and work for our patients.

“The Health Secretary’s 11th hour letter to us today makes vague promises for some degree of change to jobs and training for two years hence, showing little understanding of the crisis here and now, or a real commitment to fix it.

“While we want to get a deal done, the Government seemingly does not, leaving us with little option but to call for strike action.”

Mr Streeting said the walkouts are “unreasonable and unnecessary” and “do not have the public’s support, nor did a majority of resident doctors vote for them”.

He added: “It is preposterous that the BMA have rushed headlong into more damaging strike action a week after its new leadership opened discussions with the Government.

“After resident doctors have received a 28.9% pay rise, the Government has been clear that we simply cannot go further on pay this year.

“But by walking out on strike, the BMA are walking away from an offer to improve resident doctors’ working conditions and create more specialty training roles to progress their careers. The BMA are blocking a better deal for doctors.

The Health Secretary also warned that “the BMA’s reckless posturing will harm patients, leave other doctors and NHS staff to pick up the pieces and divert resources away from rebuilding the NHS”.

“We will not allow the BMA to wreck the NHS’s recovery,” he said.

“I urge the BMA to call off these needless strikes and come back to the table. They have a Government that wants to work with them to improve the working lives of resident doctors and create an NHS fit for the future.”

Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.

Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, said: “Another strike by resident doctors is the last thing the NHS needs, particularly as we head into what’s going to be another challenging winter for the health service.

“Trust leaders will do everything they can to prepare for this five-day walkout, but once again it’ll be patients that will be left paying the price.”