𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Resident doctors in England will strike for six days from April 7 in the ongoing row over pay and jobs, the British Medical Association (BMA) has announced.

The latest round of industrial action will start just after the Easter long weekend from 7am on April 7 until 6.59am on April 13, the union said.

The strike will be the longest single walkout of the long-running dispute and comes after more than two months of talks since the new year.

The union’s Doctors Committee chairman Jack Fletcher said the Government “will need to act fast” to prevent the six-day walkout.

He said: “We cannot ignore that, thanks to global events, economic indicators now point to years of greatly increased inflation.

“We are simply not going to put an offer to doctors that risks locking in further erosion of pay at a time when doctors continue to leave the UK for other countries.

“We are not closing the door on talks.

“We remain willing to negotiate and are eager to get a deal done if we can simply recapture the early positive spirit of negotiations.

“No strikes need to happen, but Government will need to act fast to prevent them.”

Mr Fletcher said the BMA had been “negotiating in good faith” for weeks to try and end the simultaneous pay and jobs crises for resident doctors.

He added: “Frustratingly we had been making good progress right up until the point, in the last two weeks, when the Government began to shift the goalposts.

“As talks progressed it became clear that the money proposed for pay increases was now going to be spread over three years.

“This is combined with today’s pay review body (DDRB) recommendation of a 3.5% uplift pointing to yet more years in which our pay, at best, barely treads water.

“We have made abundantly clear throughout this dispute that our aim is pay restoration, and any deal that did not move us substantially in that direction was not going to fly.”

Stuart Andrew MP, Shadow Health Secretary, said: “Labour gave junior doctors a 28% pay rise and promised to end the strikes yet strikes continue. Keir Starmer’s failure to resolve this has cost taxpayers millions and left patients in the lurch.

“As the NHS braces for another round of walkouts, it is clear stronger action is needed. If Keir Starmer had the backbone to stand up to the militant BMA, patients would not be held hostage.”

The Government last night said resident doctors have rejected a deal that would have seen “more frequent and fairer pay rises”.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “It is enormously disappointing for NHS patients and staff, that the BMA Resident Doctors’ Committee have rejected this offer.

“This government has pulled every lever available lever to put forward a generous package – developed in tandem with the BMA – that would have transformed the working lives and career prospects of resident doctors.

“I would like to thank the leaders of the BMA’s RDC for the constructive approach they have shown to the intensive talks we have had since the turn of the year. I am only sorry that this has not resulted in an agreement. The result is that resident doctors will be worse off.

“My door is always open to NHS unions that want to work with the government to improve the conditions of NHS staff. The historic deal on the table demonstrates what can be achieved when we work together, rather than be trapped in a damaging cycle of industrial action. It is for that reason that I am not giving up just yet. I’ve gone as far as I can and the government can afford, but it is not too late for the Committee to reconsider, and I urge them to do so.

“My focus and that of leaders across the NHS will sadly now have to turn again towards protecting patients, staff and our NHS by minimising disruption from more needless strikes.”