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Hunt makes final appeal to BMA as junior doctor strike ballot closes

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has written to the BMA just as its ballot on a junior doctor strike, put forth after multiple failed talks between the association and the government, is set to close at 5pm today (18 November).

If the ballot passes, junior doctors in England will take industrial action on three dates in December.

The action will start with a 24-hour emergency care-only model from 1 December at 8am. The BMA argues that this will see junior doctors provide the same level of service that happens in their given speciality, hospital or GP surgery on Christmas Day.

It will then escalate to two full walk-outs, where all trainee doctors are expected to strike from 8am to 5pm on 8 December and 16 December.

In an email to all BMA members, the association’s council chair, Mark Porter, wrote: “We are releasing this information at this early stage because we want to give as much notice as possible. It sounds like an oxymoron when talking about industrial action, but we genuinely want to minimise any 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 intransigence.”

But Hunt has warned that care will be put at risk if the strikes go ahead as planned in December, telling the House of Commons that walk-outs would make it “very, very hard” to avoid an impact on patients.

He also wrote to the BMA yesterday (17 November) in a last-minute effort to avoid industrial action, saying that he wants to appeal to the junior doctors’ committee chair, Dr Johann Malawana, to come back to the table for talks and ditch the “entirely avoidable” strike.

“We are prepared to negotiate about anything within the current pay envelope – but I am sure you understand that we have to reserve the right to make changes to contracts if there is no progress on one of the issues preventing a truly seven-day NHS, as promised in our manifesto and endorsed by the British people at the last election.

“I know from my own direct conversations with trainee doctors that we need to engage on these important issues if we are to improve working patterns and patient care, including Saturday pay rates, safe hours limits, support for medical researchers, flexible work allowances and improvements to training, and I remain happy to talk to you.

“NHS Employers and the BMA agreed nearly three years ago that the status quo was not an option. The current contract does not fairly reward staff or protect patients. Therefore I urge you once again to return to negotiations and help us deliver a solution which works for all parties,” he wrote.

Background

The strike is an attempt to overturn a controversial contract that Whitehall wants to impose on all junior doctors from August 2016. It is also the culmination of years’ worth of failed negotiations between both sides – previously ending in protests, Opposition Day debates and fears of staff exodus.

Although the BMA is receptive to a contract reform, its members believe that current government proposals will remove vital safeguards which discourage employers from making junior doctors work dangerously long hours.

The association said that if it re-enters negotiations, which it has recently been urged to do, it will have to accept all of the DDRB recommendations – even though “over 99%” of its members said they were unacceptable.

The already-heated dispute escalated even further in October, when the health secretary admitted that a “small minority” of junior doctors would lose money with the new contract.

But a week later, Hunt came forward with polished proposals that included an approximate 11% increase to basic pay and guarantees of zero pay cut.

This motivated several healthcare groups and leaders to urge trainee doctors to accept the new contract – including NHS Providers, NHS Confederation and NHS England’s medical director, Sir Bruce Keogh.

But the BMA criticised the health secretary for offering doctors “piecemeal announcements” in the media and continuing to hold up threats of imposition.

To find out more about the longstanding junior doctor row, access NHE’s exclusive detailed timeline of events dating back to 2013.

(Top image c. Neil Hall/PA Wire)