Resident doctors in England will stage a four-day strike from 7am on 15 June to 6.59am on 19 June, the 16th walkout in their long-running dispute over pay and conditions. The British Medical Association (BMA) blamed the new health secretary, James Murray, for the decision, warning of further action in July unless progress is made.
The BMA, representing around 55,000 of England's 75,000 resident doctors, is demanding a pay increase to compensate for a 26% real-terms loss in salary since 2008-09. It also calls for more training places for medical specialties. However, Health Secretary James Murray dismissed the pay claim as “unrealistic, unaffordable, and unsustainable”, noting that resident doctors have received a 33.4% pay rise over the last four years.
The strike will disrupt NHS care, forcing hospitals to rearrange thousands of diagnostic tests, outpatient appointments, and operations, costing an estimated £50m per day. Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA's resident doctors committee, accused Murray of intransigence, stating that talks have been fruitless. The NHS Alliance criticised the strike as “rash and wholly irresponsible”.
Separately, the BMA's GPs committee plans to ballot family doctors on offering more private care, potentially making GP practices more like dental surgeries with subscription-based services, following disputes over contracts and workloads.
