Junior doctors will strike for three days in December if a ballot produces the widely expected go-ahead for industrial action in protest at a new contract, their union has announced.
The NHS has 45,000 trainee doctors in England. On a first strike day, they would provide only emergency care for 24 hours starting at 8am on Tuesday 1 December, reducing hospitals to the low level of service usually seen on Christmas Day.
They intend to follow that with two all-out stoppages, in which all junior doctors will refuse to work. Those walkouts are expected for Tuesday 8 December and Wednesday 16 December, subject to the result of a ballot by the British Medical Association (BMA) of the 30,000 juniors it represents.
The ballot closes next Wednesday at 5pm and the result will become public the next day.
The action, if it happens, will see most planned operations and outpatient clinics cancelled, with consultant doctors prioritising more urgent and emergency cases.
The BMA’s leader said junior doctors had been forced into the prospect of withdrawing their labour by the intransigence by ministers over a contract the union insists is unsafe for patients and unfair for doctors.
Dr Mark Porter, chair of the BMA’s ruling council, said: “We are releasing this information at this early stage because we want to give as much notice as possible to minimise disruption to other NHS staff and, above all, to patients.
“Our dispute is with the government and our ballot for industrial action is a last resort in the face of their continued threat to impose a new contract.
“Industrial action is the last resort for a reason: it comes only when every other avenue has been exhausted. The BMA has been explicit in what needs to change in junior doctor contract proposals. The government’s refusal to work with us through genuine negotiations, and its continued threat to impose an unsafe and unfair contract leaves us with no alternative.”
The union still wants to resolve the bitter dispute to avoid strike action, but would only do so if the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, withdrew his threat to impose the contract, Porter added.
“The BMA is clear that we want to work with the government to deliver a contract that is good for patients, junior doctors and the NHS as a whole. It is not too late to achieve this, but the government must remove the threat of imposition and provide the reasonable assurances junior doctors need to get back around the negotiating table.
“Today’s decision by BMA council sends a clear message to the government – the medical profession as a whole is standing in solidarity with junior doctors.”
