The British Medical Association (BMA) has announced dates for a 72-hour strike for junior doctors in England, saying Health Minister Steve Barclay left them “no choice”.
The union said Mr Barclay’s failure to sit down at the negotiating table and negotiate a reversal of more than 26 per cent cuts in real wages left young doctors in England no choice but three days from Monday 13 March until the strike on Wednesday 15 March. . This would include a “complete shutdown of operations”, including night and on-call duty, and no emergency services.
Nearly 40,000 junior doctors voted for union action in the latest vote, and hospital funds and employers have now received word that the 72-hour strike continues.
The BMA has invited Mr. Barclay to a meeting twice in recent days, but said it received no response. It said a meeting with Department of Health officials earlier this week “did not make much progress” and Mr. Barclay declined to attend.
Dr. Rob Lawrence and Dr. Vivek Trivedi, co-chair of the BMA Young Doctors Committee, said: “Make no mistake, this strike was an absolute gift from the government in preventing it; You know it, we know it, and our patients should know it too.
“Since last summer, we’ve been trying to get every health minister we’ve had to the negotiating table. We have written many times, and even yesterday we were hoping that Steve Barclay would see the need to join with us to find a workable solution that could prevent this strike.
“We were not told why we were not offered intensive negotiations and what we need to do to get the government to start negotiations with us. We have no other choice but to continue this action.”
Some 98 percent of young doctors voted for union action in the last vote because they are “demoralized, angry and no longer willing to work for wages that have fallen by more than 26 percent in the last 15 years.” the co-chairs said.
“This, along with the stress and exhaustion of working for the NHS in a crisis, brought us to this point and resulted in a 72-hour outage.
“How the hell can the Minister of Health put his head in the sand and hope that, if he doesn’t hit us, this crisis caused by his government will somehow be resolved? That won’t happen, and patients and the public will continue to bear the brunt of his inaction until he does business with us and we negotiate a deal that really values young doctors and pays us what we’re worth.
This story will be updated.
Source: I News
I’m Raymond Molina, a professional writer and journalist with over 5 years of experience in the media industry. I currently work for 24 News Reporters, where I write for the health section of their news website. In my role, I am responsible for researching and writing stories on current health trends and issues. My articles are often seen as thought-provoking pieces that provide valuable insight into the state of society’s wellbeing.