- A fresh wave of strike action could start as soon as next month
- Junior Doctors Committee has asked BMA to support industrial action
- Ministers had hoped to end the dispute by agreeing to a reformed deal
- But 58% of junior doctors voted against it branding the contract ‘unsafe’
Alexander Ward For The Daily Mail
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Kate Pickles For Mailonline
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Junior doctors are poised to mount further strikes next month after rejecting Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s new contract.
The Junior Doctors Committee of the British Medical Association (BMA) is set to ask its full council to support more industrial action in September.
Ministers had hoped to end the dispute over the controversial changes by agreeing to a reformed contract with BMA officials.
But it was rejected by 58 per cent of its members who took part in a ballot.
Junior doctors are poised to mount further strikes after rejecting Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s new contract. Pictured, a protester earlier this year
Last month Mr Hunt announced the contract would be imposed on junior doctors from October, saying the NHS was in ‘no man’s land’ and any further delay would be damaging for staff and patients.
But the JDC said ministers have not addressed concerns over what they consider ‘unsafe working hours’.
In a letter to members, the JDC’s chair Ellen McCourt said the government had been’persistently silent’ on issues which she said ‘need to be addressed.’
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She said doctors still have serious concerns over the contract, adding it will fuel the current workforce crisis.
‘In response to the Government’s silence, JDC Exec has today made a formal request for a special meeting of BMA Council to authorise a rolling programme of escalated industrial action beginning in early September,’ she wrote.
‘With just eight weeks before the first group of doctors are moved onto the new contract, progress needs to be made and time is running out.
‘Efforts by the BMA to resolve the dispute through talks have been met with an unwillingness to engage and, at times, deafening silence from the government.
‘This is despite a promise from Jeremy Hunt just last month that his door is always open.
‘Jeremy Hunt needs to act now, lift the imposition and address junior doctors’ concerns.
‘If he does not then junior doctors are clear that they are prepared to take further industrial action.’
Ministers had hoped to end the dispute over the changes by agreeing to a reformed contract with British Medical Association officials. Pictured, protesters earlier this year
News of further possible action follows five rounds of strikes which saw junior doctors in England walk out of UK hospitals.
They also stopped providing emergency care for the first time in NHS history during their most recent walkout, which went on for two days at the end of April.
In the last strike alone, more than 125,000 appointments and operations were cancelled.
This was on top of almost 25,000 procedures cancelled during previous action.
Daniel Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, has called on junior doctors not to go ahead with any further strikes.
‘Industrial action achieves little or nothing, but places pressure on already stretched teams and services and causes worry, distress and disruption for patients, carers and their families,’ he said.
‘Over the last two months we have been talking with the Junior Doctors Committee and have, along with the Department of Health and others.’
JUNIOR DOCTORS ‘REJECTED CONTRACT DUE TO CONCERNS OVER UNSAFE WORKING HOURS’
Junior doctors on strike outside Westminster, earlier this year
Junior doctors and medical students chose to reject the proposed contract because it did not address some key concerns about unsafe working hours, one doctor has said.
GP trainee Dr Francesca Silman, from London, said she voted against the new deal because of worries over working hours.
She said the new deal also did not do enough to ensure staff are retained or encouraged to go into difficult specialties.
Dr Silman, who is part of the campaign group Justice for Health, said: ‘We are currently working in an underfunded, understaffed NHS, where unnecessary risks are taken on a daily basis due to lack of staff to provide the care our patients need.
‘We need a contract that ensures staff are retained, and encouraged to enter some of the most difficult specialties such as emergency medicine.
‘We need a contract that ensures that doctors are not working unsafe hours.
‘I did not see these concerns addressed by the contract, whose premise is to stretch a workforce even further to provide the Government’s manifesto of a seven-day NHS.
‘For this reason, I felt there was no alternative other than to reject the contract.
‘This is a pivotal moment for the NHS, and I strongly feel that if doctors do not fight for a sustainable workforce, the whole system is on the brink of collapse.’
She added: ‘Moving forward, the Government must now acknowledge that it is not possible to provide a seven-day NHS without extra staff and funding.
‘That it is not possible to create a contract that doctors feel is safe, by stretching the current workforce.
‘Once this is acknowledged, then perhaps some solutions can be found, and a further contract can then be negotiated that is acceptable to everyone.’
The new deal was rejected by 58 per cent of BMA members who claim it is unsafe
Meanwhile Dr Mark McInerney, who will be starting emergency medicine specialist training in London in three weeks’ time, said he rejected the terms of the new contract because of a number of concerns.
He said he had concerns over whistleblowing protection and a new ‘guardian’ role proposed under the deal.
And the new contract offered a ‘very complex’ pay scale, he said.
Dr McInerney added: ‘I am so disappointed that the Government made me strike on this issue, or at least backed me into that corner.
‘I’d be prepared to strike again, as I want fairer conditions for my female colleagues who often work less than full time compared to males. I also want 100% whistleblowing protection.
‘The current significant under-staffing in the NHS means that many of the possibly good elements of the contract are completely undermined and mean nothing.’
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