Resident doctors in England are set to strike next month, blaming the Government’s failure to agree a credible plan for jobs and pay restoration.
The BMA resident doctors committee England has announced doctors will stage full walk-out action from 7am on 14 November, while urging health secretary Wes Streeting to avert the action by returning to the negotiating table.
The announcement comes after resident doctors leaders met with the health secretary on 13 October to find a way forward on addressing pay erosion and job shortages.
RDC had hoped the dialogue would see the Government recognise doctors’ concerns by providing a mandate for a multi-year pay deal or by agreeing to targeted in-year improvements to resident doctors’ pay.
In confirming the latest strike dates, RDC chair Jack Fletcher (pictured above) lamented the need for further industrial action, while stressing that the situation was ‘disappointing but not unredeemable’, and urging Mr Streeting to resume talks in good faith.
He said: ‘This is not where we wanted to be. We have spent the last week in talks with Government, pressing the health secretary to end the scandal of doctors going unemployed … a situation which cannot go on.
‘We talked with the Government in good faith – keen for the health secretary to see that a deal that included options to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over several years, giving newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the next four years.
‘We hoped the Government would see that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the public and our patients and would also help stop our doctors leaving the NHS.
‘Better employment prospects and restoring pay – are a credible way forward that would work for doctors, work for Government and work for our patients. Sadly, while we want to get such a deal done, the Government seemingly, does not, leaving us with little option but to call for strike action.’
Dr Fletcher added: ‘That is disappointing, but it is not irredeemable. Wes Streeting inherited an NHS falling apart through decades of underinvestment, but restoring our pay over several years, along with concrete plans to create more jobs and training place would go a long way towards the start of a new and better health service.
‘We need the health secretary to step up, come forward with a proper offer on jobs, on pay. We need him to embrace change and make an NHS fit for doctors and fit for patients.’
