JUNIOR doctors will go on strike again just days before the General Election. They will down tools for five days from June 27 to July 2, the British Medical Association (BMA) confirmed today. The union said it had "no choice" after ministers "refused to meet pay demands".
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. "When we entered mediation with the government this month we 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." They described this round of action , which falls in the week before the General Election on July 4, as "the biggest and loudest yet".
The BMA added that if the PM makes a public commitment its members deem "acceptable", then no walkout will go ahead. Junior doctors , whose salaries start at £32,000, have been in dispute with the government over pay and working conditions for more than a year. They say in 2008, medics were paid £20 an hour in today's money, and this has dropped to £15 in 2023/24.
"Pay is still eroding, morale is still plummeting and retention rates are still dropping," Dr Trivedi sai.
