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The Junior Doctors Committee has announced a fresh round of strike action after failing to reach a pay agreement with the government.
The announcement comes following three months of pay talks between the JDC and the government, which were facilitated by an external mediator, chosen by jointly by both parties.
The JDC says they gave the government a ‘final opportunity’ to make an offer and avoid the strikes following the announcement of a general election in July, but a ‘credible offer’ was note made.
The five-day junior doctor strike will begin at 7am on 27 June and end at 7am on 2 July.
Junior doctors say Sunak can put an end to the strikes by providing a credible pay offer
BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said the JDC are “fed up and out of patience” and the strikes will go ahead unless the government commits to ‘restoring doctors’ pay’.
“We made clear to the Government that we would strike unless discussions ended in a credible pay offer. 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,” they said.
“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.”
Dr Laurenson and Trivedi say Mr Sunak has the opportunity to put an end to the strikes by putting forward an offer that is ‘acceptable’ to the committee.
NHS leaders ‘incredibly anxious’ at the thought of more strikes
The NHS Confederation says health leaders will be “incredibly anxious” regarding the announcement of further strike dates, particularly as the strikes are due to take place in the week leading up to the general election.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the membership organisation, said: “We know that the last year of industrial action has meant that more than 1.4 million appointments and operations have been cancelled, all of which have had to be rescheduled which is a time consuming and expensive exercise, costing the NHS around £3 billion.
“With a backdrop of staffing gaps in the service, health leaders and their teams will be working tirelessly to maintain services and fill rotas and cover gaps, but most importantly it is the patients who bear the brunt of this ongoing pay dispute.
“This war of attrition has been going on for far too long, we hope that any new government that comes in July will reach a solution with the BMA and end this dispute which has been having such an impact on patients and the NHS.”