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JUNIOR doctors in England will launch their first ever all-out strike after hard-headed ministers refused to back down on imposing dangerous new working practices.
Last-ditch talks yesterday between the British Medical Association (BMA), NHS bosses and Jeremy Hunt’s Department of Health broke down after the Tory minister failed to address doctors’ concerns regarding “robust contractual safeguards on safe working” and “proper recognition for those working unsocial hours” in contracts being forced on the workers.
The BMA, which represents 38,000 junior doctors, confirmed that members would walk out for 24 hours on January 12 and for 48 hours from January 26, but continue to provide emergency care.
If that’s not enough to shift ministers junior doctors will mount a full withdrawal of labour for the first time ever between 8am and 5pm on February 10.
BMA council chair Dr Mark Porter accused the government of refusing to take junior doctors’ concerns seriously.
He said the government had “repeatedly dragged its feet throughout this process, initially rejecting our offer of talks and failing to make significant movement during negotiations” and deliberately misconstruing and misinterpreting the intentions of the BMA and its members.
“We sincerely regret the disruption that industrial action will cause, but junior doctors have been left with no option,” he said.
“It is because the government’s proposals would be bad for patient care as well as junior doctors in the long term that we are taking this stand.”
The new contracts proposed by the Tories will force junior doctors to work longer hours for less money, and has been fiercely opposed by members, who voted by 98 per cent for strike action last November and protested in their thousands.
Labour’s shadow minister for trade unions swung behind the junior doctors’ stand.
“Despite the fact that these junior doctors and the BMA have bent over backwards to try and come to some sort of satisfactory resolution, the government just isn’t having any of it,” Ian Lavery told the Star.
The miners’ MP said it looked like the government was “up for a fight” but urged junior doctors to use their “huge mandate to gain what’s best, not just for themselves but for the safety of the patients of the NHS and the service itself.”
David Cameron’s health adviser Nick Sneddon, a former deputy director of the Reform thinktank which advocates wholesale NHS privatisation, has been closely involved with the dispute since it began in September.
The Department of Health claims that although Mr Sneddon has been briefed on the matter he is not directly involved with the dispute.
Students, activists and health workers will also be protesting this weekend against the Tories’ proposed scrapping of the NHS bursary from 2017, which will require future midwives, nurses and other health professionals to pay up to £50,000 to study.
BMA junior doctors’ committee national executive member Yannis Gourtsoyannis said that fighting to maintain NHS bursaries is “vital for the future of the NHS.”
He called on doctors to support the fight, adding that the BMA is “honoured to stand in solidarity with student nurses.”
People’s Assembly national secretary Sam Fairbairn accused the government of launching “attack after attack” on the NHS.
“This is another step in their economically disastrous austerity programme. It’s cruel and unnecessary and benefits only those at the top.”
The protest will be held this Saturday at 12pm, assembling at St Thomas Hospital, Westminster Bridge followed by a march to Downing Street.
