Junior doctors in England are to strike for five days in their long-running pay dispute, bringing a fresh wave of disruption to the NHS in the week leading up to the general election.
Thousands of patients face having their care cancelled after the British Medical Association announced a strike from 7am on 27 June until 7am on 2 July. Voters go to the polls on 4 July.
The development will add to the pressure on Rishi Sunak, who has been accused of holding up a deal over pay, to urgently resolve the row.
In a statement on Wednesday, the BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs, Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, said: “We made clear to the government that we would strike unless discussions ended in a credible pay offer. For more than 18 months we have been asking Rishi Sunak to put forward proposals to restore the pay junior doctors have lost over the past 15 years – equal to more than a quarter in real terms.”
They said that when they entered mediation with the government this month they did so under the impression that “we had a functioning government that would soon be making an offer. Clearly no offer is now forthcoming. Junior doctors are fed up and out of patience.”
Sunak still had an opportunity to show that he cared about the NHS and its workers, Laurenson and Trivedi added. “If during this campaign he makes such a public commitment that is acceptable to the BMA’s junior doctors committee, then no strikes need go ahead.”
Health leaders expressed alarm, warning the five-day strike would again jeopardise efforts to tackle the record waiting list and push other services to breaking point.
Junior doctors in England voted in March to keep on striking until the middle of September. Those belonging to the BMA voted overwhelmingly to stage further stoppages in addition to the 41 days of strikes held since March 2023.
They backed a further six months of stoppages by 98% on a 62% turnout. There was almost unanimous support – 97% in favour, with just 3% against – for taking action short of a strike, such as refusing to work overtime, in pursuit of a 35% pay rise.
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They are seeking the 35% rise as “full restoration” of the 26% drop in the real-terms value of their salaries since 2008.
