Ozva Adminyoung doctors in England it will go on strike for 72 hours in March in protest over the pay if its next vote produces a majority in favor of industrial action.
His union, the British Medical Association (BMA), issued the warning, saying young doctors had suffered a “staggering and unjustifiable” 26.1% cut in income since 2008.
The union will begin voting out more than 45,000 young doctors from Monday in a move that could lead to an escalation of the growing wave of strikes for National Health Service staff about their salaries.
The nurses will carry out their third stoppage on January 18 and 19, while the ambulance personnel will refuse to work for the second and third time on January 11 and 23.
The BMA made it clear that if the young doctors vote to strike, which seems likely, they will take their work from all NHS services, including emergency care, for three days. Voting will last for six weeks until February 20.
Any disruption could cause major disruption to hospitals and other services, including surgery and outpatient clinics. NHS trusts would have to reduce the services they can offer as senior doctors are redeployed from their normal roles to cover their younger colleagues.
Junior doctors are trainee doctors who have not yet acquired consultant status. However, despite their title, they include doctors ranging from those who have just graduated to those in their 30s and 30s who already have a lot of experience, such as registrars.
Hospital heads expressed deep concern about the potential impact of a three-day strike.
Miriam Deakin, policy director for hospitals body NHS Providers, said the BMA’s announcement was “deeply concerning”. If the vote results in a strike, then “trusted leaders will do everything possible to minimize disruption and prioritize the safe delivery of care and services for patients.”
He added: “Trusted leaders are very concerned about the possibility of a prolonged or coordinated strike by health unions in the coming months. They also understand the factors that have led young doctors and other health workers to vote for industrial action.”
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said a 72-hour strike by young doctors “will be of great concern to health leaders.”
Both he and Deakin urged ministers to enter into talks with health unions over pay, which health secretary Steve Barclay has consistently refused to do. Unions have rejected Barclay’s award of a £1,400 pay rise for this year and want a rise that more closely matches inflation, to prevent staff from suffering a drop in real terms.
“Faced with mounting winter pressure, a huge vacancy gap and upcoming strikes in January that will affect services, the government cannot simply sit back and allow even more strikes to occur when patient care is at stake and unions must stand open to compromise.
The junior doctors were not included in the staff covered by this year’s salary round as they are in the final year of a four-year contract agreed to in 2019 that gave them a 2% raise for 2022-23.
However, the BMA pointed to the fact that the review body for the remuneration of doctors and dentistswhich advises ministers on pay for those professions, has said that 2% is “probably not enough” to help the NHS improve the retention of trainee doctors and their productivity and also that an “improvement” clause in The 2% plan allows ministers to improve on that figure if circumstances change.
The Department of Health and Social Care said: “Our multi-year pay agreement with the British Medical Association is increasing the pay of young doctors by a cumulative 8.2% by 2023. We have also invested an additional £90m to provide more experienced young doctors with higher pay. , higher allowances for those who work more frequently on weekends, and higher rates of pay for night shifts.
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