The British Medical Association (BMA) has announced junior doctors will stage the first national five-day strike in the history of the NHS next month following Jeremy Hunt’s imposition of the new contract.
The strike will take place from 8am to 5pm every day from the 12th to 16th September.
Ellen McCourt, the BMA junior doctors’ committee chair said: “We have a simple ask of the Government: stop the imposition. If it agrees to do this, junior doctors will call off industrial action.
“This is not a situation junior doctors wanted to find themselves in. We want to resolve this dispute through talks, but in forcing through a contract that junior doctors have rejected and which they don’t believe is good for their patients or themselves, the Government has left them with no other choice.
“Junior doctors still have serious concerns with the contract, particularly that it will fuel the workforce crisis, and that it fails to treat all doctors fairly.”
A Department of Health spokesman said: “As doctors’ representatives, the BMA should be putting patients first not playing politics in a way that will be immensely damaging for vulnerable patients.
“What’s more, the BMA must be the first union in history to call for strike action against a deal they themselves negotiated and said was a good one.”
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the news was “devastating” and could result in the cancellation of 100,000 operations.
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