Junior doctors to strike next week after talks break down

But Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt says just 1% of junior doctors would lose pay and those doctors already work too many hours.

Previous year 98% of more than 37,000 doctors balloted by the BMA voted in favour of strikes. Suspended strike action in November led to the cancellation of thousands of operations, procedures and appointments.

The announcement comes after the doctor’s union agreed to cancel three strikes last month to re-enter talks with the government.

“In order for them (the strikes) to be called off, the government would have to recognize the deeply held concerns of junior doctors and be able to go rather further than it has been able to push itself over Christmas”, Mark Porter, the BMA chairman told BBC Radio.

Currently, 7pm to 7am Monday to Friday and the whole of Saturday and Sunday attract a premium rate of pay.

Speaking prior to the last planned walkout, one junior doctor based at King’s Mill said: “Due to Jeremy Hunt’s intransigence over the junior doctor’s contract, we, as members of the BMA feel that we have had no other option but to strike against a contract that we believe will affect patient safety and cause more doctors to leave the NHS”.

Junior doctors would see an increase of 11% to their salaries.

Speaking on Monday evening, Mr Hunt said that “good progress” had been made in the talks, with the only obstacle being the weekend pay. “All parties in the dispute must remember that their primary duty is to patients”.

The fight between junior doctors in England and the government continues.

He added: ‘Should we not be able to reach an acceptable outcome by 4pm on January 4, the BMA will need to commence serving notice as per its mandate, to the NHS, for industrial action the following week’. But after a almost a month the talks broke down with the Tories refusing to budge on any key issues.

A Department of Health spokesman said yesterday: ‘We have been making good progress with the BMA. It would be disastrous if we drift into a strike which could have a significant impact on patients.

Phil Atkinson, one of the Yorkshire juniors who organised a protest over the plans in Leeds in October, is “saddened” by the suggestion that strike action could be around the corner.

David Cameron’s health adviser Nick Sneddon, a former deputy director of the Reform thinktank which advocates wholesale NHS privatisation, has been closely involved with the dispute since it began in September.

“Lots of junior doctors are planning to march in solidarity with the student nurses-we’re showing this is part of a united fight”.