Junior Doctors Strike Planned For January Suspended As Controversial Contract Negotiations Continue

A PLANNED strike by junior doctors between next Tuesday and Thursday has been suspended.

V. Sajinlal, secretary, Post Graduate Association and Akshay, president, House Surgeons Association of the medical college in a joint press statement on Monday said that the junior doctors had planned the indefinite strike as they had no other option.

“We are announcing this today (January 19) in order to give trusts as much notice as possible so as to avoid disruption to patients”.

The dispute centres on a new contract which the government says will increase doctors’ pay by 11 per cent, but at the same time curb payments doctors now receive for working unsociable hours on weekends and evenings.

But he warned that a third strike in which even emergency care was to be withheld, planned to start on February 10, would go ahead if “significant, concrete progress” was not made.

The BMA and the government quickly made a decision to return to the negotiating table soon after, especially in an effort to dodge the second and longer walkout.

Government officials have been in discussion with BMA officials through the ACAS conciliatory service but they have so far been unable to reach an agreement on several key clauses of the contract.

Both argued it is “still possible and still legal” to force the contract on the workforce without the union’s formal signature.

The decision to offer emergency care only led to the cancellation of 1,425 inpatient operations and procedures, while 2,535 outpatient appointments were also cancelled. Following junior doctors’ clear message to the government during last week’s action, our focus is now on building on early progress made in the current set of talks.

“We hope that the BMA, Department of Health and NHS Employers can now find a lasting resolution”.

One junior doctor who supported colleagues at the picket line at South Tyneside hospital last Tuesday said the industrial action had been very well received. We would again like to thank our patients for their understanding.