17.06.16
Junior doctors urged to vote in ‘key’ referendum
Polls open today for the British Medical Association (BMA) referendum on the new junior doctors’ contract.
The contract, agreed between the BMA and the government after an unprecedented series of partial and all-out strikes by junior doctors, offers a pay increase of 10-11%, a 46-hour rest period after completing up to four night shifts, and the requirement not to work more frequently than one in two weekends.
Polls are open until 1 July and the result will be announced on 6 July.
Dr Cliff Mann, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “This is a key vote and will determine both the content and tone of the discussions relating to the challenges facing emergency medicine in the UK for many years.
“The compromises made by both sides will inevitably be criticised but the College has welcomed many of the principles established for the first time in this contract. Resolution of the dispute would provide the best opportunity in a generation to address the non-contractual issues which have blighted post-graduate medical education for too long.”
In a blog post, Professor Jane Dacre, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: “I know that opinion is likely to be split but, after a lot of thought about what I would do if I were a trainee doctor now, I would vote ‘yes’ in the junior doctor referendum but with a strong commitment to sorting out the challenges and issues highlighted during the dispute.”
(Image c. Frank Augstein from PA Images)
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