Junior doctors to walk out over contract plan

Facebook and Twitter, where junior doctors encouraged their peers to vote in favour of strikes, were rife with paranoia about plots to privatise the health service and infiltration by “Department of Health moles”.

Asked if they were prepared to take part in industrial action short of a strike, 28,120 (99.4% of the vote) said yes.

The strikes are scheduled for December 1, 8 and 16.

He asked if the junior doctors would be able to respond “within one hour of a major incident being declared”.

Shadow health secretary Heidi Alexander said: “Jeremy Hunt needs to take responsibility for the fact that this is the first time in 40 years that junior doctors have voted to take such significant industrial action”.

Burt described the three planned strikes over weekend working as “entirely avoidable” and urged the British Medical Association to avoid anything that risks harm to patients.

The new contract is set to be imposed from next summer on doctors working up to consultant level and includes an 11 per cent rise in basic pay.

ACP executive committee chair Prof Johnathan Joffe said: “The potential effect the new contractual changes will have on the recruitment, retention and training of oncology doctors, the development of the specialty and most importantly on the care of our patients are something we can ill afford and is of grave concern”. Junior doctors dismissed the last-ditch attempt by Hunt to head off the dispute. This would mean many surgeries getting cancelled as well as outpatient services getting affected – The junior doctors comprise nearly half of the medical fraternity of Europe. Many have to rely on their current out-of-hours premium pay to manage.

Hunt’s belligerent stand has also had the impact of increasing militancy among junior doctors, who have held a number of vocal protests.

Lancashire hospitals are facing widescale disruption after junior doctors voted to go on strike in a contract row with the Government.

Mr Hunt was instead cooking up plans to break the strike in his Westminster office, according to the junior health minister sent in his place.

In a copy sent to the Guardian they stated, “An empowered, rested, happy and appropriately remunerated workforce across all cadres of medical, nursing and allied health professional staff is essential to sustain high clinical standards”.

“They are probably best qualified to decide what is best for them”. The Yorkshire Post regional newspaper carried a copy of the letter. “Therefore I urge you once again to return to negotiations and help us deliver a solution which works for all parties”, he wrote.

“We went to the Independent Pay Review Body, they came up with their proposals, we accepted their proposals and they are the basis of what we are proposing should change”. Coercing staff is demotivating, breeds distrust and discontent and will result in further difficulties in recruitment and retention.

There are many ways in which the new contracts will be damaging to doctors” personal lives and bank accounts, but I’m writing today to tell you the most important part: “it will affect the care you receive as an NHS patient.