Resident doctors in England will stage a four-day strike from 7am on Monday 15 June until 6.59am on Friday 19 June, the British Medical Association (BMA) has announced. This will be the 16th strike in the long-running dispute over pay and working conditions.
The BMA blamed the new health secretary, James Murray, for the decision, accusing him of intransigence during talks. Murray, who succeeded Wes Streeting on 14 May, dismissed the doctors' 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 is expected to disrupt NHS care, forcing hospitals to rearrange thousands of diagnostic tests, outpatient appointments and operations. The NHS Alliance criticised the action as “rash and wholly irresponsible”, warning it would place additional pressure on staff and cost the NHS an estimated £50m a day.
The BMA is seeking a pay increase to make up for a 26% loss in the real-terms value of salaries since 2008-09, and wants the NHS to expand training places for resident doctors. Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA's resident doctors committee, said further talks seemed pointless given the government's unwillingness to move.
Meanwhile, the BMA's GPs committee plans to ballot family doctors on offering more private care, potentially making GP practices more like dental surgeries with means-tested, subscription-based services.
