Junior doctors begin strike in Kent with warnings of more action over summer
Junior doctors have gone on strike today in a protest over wages
As junior doctors in Kent and across England start their eleventh walkout over pay, there's a warning that more strike action could take place in the summer if the next government does not move forward negotiations.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said it's ready to talk and the union has already had some discussions with the Labour Party.
Junior doctors said Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has promised talks on July 5 if the party wins the General Election.
The BMA’s junior doctors committee said Mr Streeting’s remark that raising pay would be a “journey and not an event” align with their pay restoration goals.
Junior doctors in England have said their pay has been cut by more than a quarter over the last 15 years and have called for a 35% pay uplift.
But Mr Streeting has said he will not meet the 35% ask, saying that if he gave in to the demand then “any trade union worth their salt” would come back the following year with the same request.
He has said there is “space for a discussion” on pay, as well as negotiations on how to improve working conditions for medics in training.
Strike during heatwave
NHS leaders have warned people to expect "major disruption" to services as strikes get underway during a heatwave.
Yellow heat health alerts are in place for many parts of the country and will end at 5pm today, the day junior doctors across the country will down their stethoscopes and pick up placards.
It will be the eleventh walkout by junior doctors from the British Medical Association (BMA) in England, as the bitter dispute over pay rumbles on.
While the weather will become more inclement during the five-day strike, NHS bosses said that the current heatwave has already put strain on the service.
And concerns have been raised about the impact that the strike will have on hospitals affected by the cyber attack.
Major hospitals Guys’ and St Thomas’ and King’s in London are still running at reduced capacity after the incident.
But the BMA announced that some senior junior doctors would be given permission to work at the hospitals during the walkouts to “prevent dangerous delays to cancer care”.
Posting on X, it said: “To prevent dangerous delays to cancer care, we are granting a derogation for surgical registrars working on high-risk upper GI, head and neck, and lung cancers at three hospital trusts: Lewisham and Greenwich, Guys & St Thomas’ and Kings College Hospital.
How does NHS staffing work during a strike?
Asked about the impact of the cyber attack and the weather, BMA chairman of council, Professor Philip Banfield, said: “When the junior doctors go on strike, it doesn’t empty the hospital out of doctors, you re-provide what junior doctors are doing with more experienced doctors.
“So you’ve got our SAS colleagues, consultants, so it is a more senior workforce in place, those gaps are not quite what you would expect.
“The cyber attack, they (the hospitals) are not able to do as much of the elective work anyway – that’s going across a six-week period.
“So if you put a strike on to that, they’ve already got a mechanism for doing the work that they can cope with.
“In any heatwave warning, if you end up going to emergency departments because of heat, you will be treated as you would on any normal day, you don’t suddenly end up bringing in lots of doctors.
“If any (hospital) finds that there is a cluster of incidents that need doctors to go back into work, then the junior doctors will go back into work.
“So for example, if there was something big that happened at an event like Glastonbury and ended up with tonnes of people being admitted to the hospital, what does the NHS England do?
“It comes and tells us what the situation is, and we say ‘fair, you need two people to go back’.”
The strike started at 9am on June 27 and ends on July 2, just two days before voters go to the polls.
NHS England’s national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said: “This new round of strike action will again hit the NHS very hard, with almost all routine care likely to be affected, and services put under significant pressure.
“While the warmer weather can lead to additional pressure on services at a time when demand for services is already high.
“As ever, we are working to ensure urgent and emergency care is prioritised for patients, but there is no doubt that it becomes harder each time to bring routine services back on track following strikes, and the cumulative effect for patients, staff and the NHS as a whole is enormous.
“People should continue to use 999 in life-threatening emergencies and NHS 111 – on the NHS app, online, or by phone – for other health concerns.
“GP services and pharmacies are also available for patients and can be accessed in the normal way, and patients who haven’t been contacted or informed that their planned appointment has been postponed are also urged to attend as normal.”
1.5 million appointments postponed
About 1.5 million appointments have been postponed since the current wave of industrial action began in the NHS in England in December 2022, which has included walkouts by junior doctors, consultants, paramedics, physiotherapists and other staff groups
It is estimated that strikes have cost the NHS an estimated £3 billion.