Junior doctors in Northern Ireland announce strike dates

Junior doctors in Northern Ireland have announced further strike action after pay talks with the Department of Health broke down.

Two 48-hour full walk outs will take place from 7am on Wednesday 22 May to 7am on Friday 24 May, and from 7am on Thursday 06 June to 7am on Saturday 08 June.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said that despite some progress on non-pay issues, regrettably there has been no progress on their key asks around pay including a commitment to work towards full pay restoration. This left them with no choice but to escalate the strike action.

The union added that the levels of discontent among doctors about pay is now so palpable that consultant colleagues also plan to ballot members for industrial action, and a recent indicative ballot of SAS (specialist, staff grade, associate specialist and specialty doctors) members returned a yes vote for the same course of action.

It comes as Northern Ireland’s health trusts are expected to produce savings plans by the end of this month in the wake of last week’s Stormont budget.

The BMA said that the announcement that £7.76billion will be allocated to health was simply not enough to sustain a health service that is struggling to function effectively with a huge workload and workforce crisis, never mind address the underlaying causes of this crisis in any realistic, long-term way.

The role junior doctors have in NHS is not valued

In March, junior doctors in England also voted overwhelmingly in favour of continuing their industrial action and campaign for full pay restoration for another six months.

NHS England estimated that over the past 13 months, industrial action has cost around £2 billion, as trusts have been forced to pay more for replacement staff and hospitals have lost out by not being able to perform operations they are usually paid to do. The BMA estimates that the gross cost of a 35% pay uplift would be £1.65 billion.

Whereas in April, 83% of consultants in England accepted a pay offer from the UK government. The pay deal included changes to the review body on doctors’ and dentists’ remuneration (DDRB) and a 2.85% (£3,000) uplift for those who have been senior doctors for four to seven years.

Northern Ireland junior doctor committee (NIJDC) chair, Dr Fiona Griffin, said: “After our 24-hour walk out on 06 March we were invited by the health minister to meet with his officials about our pay asks. We agreed to this in good faith and were hopeful for productive and meaningful discussions.

“We are very disappointed that we have not been able to make any progress, but we must act on behalf of our members who voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking strike action for full pay restoration.

“Doctors can see their colleagues elsewhere in the UK and in other jurisdictions getting better pay and conditions for less pressurised workloads. This, along with years of below inflation or non-existent pay uplifts, the latest of which for the 2023/24 financial year has still yet to be paid, further adds to the reality that the key role junior doctors have in the health service is simply not valued.”