Junior doctors and consultants in England will take joint strike action for the first time over four days across September and October, the British Medical Association (BMA) has announced.

The BMA said consultants will strike on 19 and 20 September with Christmas Day levels of cover, while junior doctors will also walk out on 20 September with similar levels of cover followed by strikes on 21 and 22 September.

Both consultants and junior doctors will strike again on 2, 3, and 4 October, again with Christmas Day levels of cover, in what the union said was the first joint strike between consultants and junior doctors in NHS history.

The strike days also coincide with Rishi Sunak‘s first Tory party conference as leader and prime minister.

BMA junior doctor committee co-chairs Dr Rob Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said: “Today, junior doctors across England are sending a single message, loud and clear to the government: we are not going anywhere.

“We are prepared to continue with our industrial action, but we don’t have to – the prime minister has the power to halt any further action by making us a credible offer that we can put to our members.

“Refusing to negotiate with us and with our consultant colleagues is not the way ahead.”

More on Nhs

Related Topics:

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the joint strike was “extremely disappointing” – as he hit out at the BMA’s “relentless and co-ordinated strike action”.

Twitter

This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Twitter cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.


Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Twitter cookies for this session only.

Enable Cookies
Allow Cookies Once

“Nearly 900,000 appointments have been cancelled due to strike action,” he tweeted.

“I fear the BMA’s hard-line stance and threat of indefinite action means this number will only keep rising.”

He said doctors who started their hospital training this year will receive a 10.3% pay increase, with the average junior doctor in line for a 8.8% rise.

Consultants have been offered a 6% rise – a figure the BMA described as “insulting”, claiming consultants have experienced a “35% pay erosion” over the last 14 years.

“My door is always open to discuss how we can work together with NHS staff to improve their working lives – but this pay award is final, so I urge the BMA to call an end to this callous and calculated disruption,” Mr Barclay tweeted.

The union said it was continuing action in the autumn against the “backdrop of a hugely understaffed and under-resourced health service”.

Read more:
NHS handed £250m to tackle waiting times – but fresh funding labelled ‘sticking plaster’ after cuts
Health secretary ‘open to requests’ for Scotland and Wales patients to be treated in England

It said the ballot for industrial action for junior doctors had been renewed for a further six months, with 98.4% voting in favour on a 71% turnout.

“Junior doctors and consultants have seen their pay drop in real terms by over a third in the past 15 years,” the BMA said.

It claimed that the government was refusing to enter talks with either junior doctors or consultants.

The latest strike action comes after junior doctors staged 19 days of walkouts across March this year.

Last week striking consultants apologised to patients who suffered delayed or cancelled appointments due to industrial action but said the government was to blame.

The senior doctors walked out for 48 hours from 7am on 24 August, operating on a “Christmas day cover” basis.