10th round of Junior Doctor Strikes in Wiltshire to start on Saturday
It's in their continued row over pay with the Government
Junior Doctors in Wiltshire are taking a 10th round of strike action from Saturday morning (24/2), as their row over pay with the Government continues.
BMA members are walking out for five days from 7am on Saturday, until 11:59pm on Wednesday (28/2), after further talks with the Government broke down.
As a result, hospital's across the county are braced for significant disruption, with the message being for us only to visit if we really need to.
Acting Chief Medical Officer at Swindon's Great Western Hospital, Dr Stephen Haig, is urging us to only dial 999 in an emergency
We're advised to speak to NHS 111 in the first instance and we should use local GPs and Pharmacies.
"You will be seen if you attend the emergency department or urgent treatment centre," Dr Haig said, adding: "but please remain patient with our teams who will be prioritising those most in need of our attention."
It's expected that some cancellations will be made to planned treatments, but we are told to attend our appointments, unless the NHS contacts us directly.
The BMA say they've made "every effort" to find a fair solution with number 10.
They say the Health Secretary declined the opportunity to extend the strike mandate, after failing to table an improved pay offer.
In announcing the industrial action, BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said:
"We have made every effort to work with the Government in finding a fair solution to this dispute whilst trying to avoid strike action. Even yesterday we were willing to delay further strike action in exchange for a short extension of our current strike mandate. Had the Health Secretary agreed to this, an act of good faith on both sides, talks could have gone ahead without more strikes. Sadly, the Government declined.
“The glacial speed of progress with the Government is frustrating and incomprehensible. The Health Secretary was quite clear in media interviews during our last action that she would meet us ‘in twenty minutes’ when no strikes were planned. She also made clear that she had a further offer to make. It turned out to be more than twenty days before we were offered a meeting with a minister. When we did it wasn’t with the Health Secretary, and there was no offer on the table. Time has been lost that could have been used to negotiate with us, or at least with the Treasury and the Prime Minister for the mandate to make a credible offer.
“From the very start of the industrial action, we have been clear that there is no need for strike action as long as substantial progress is made, and we remain willing to carry on talking and to cancel the forthcoming strikes if significant progress is made and a credible offer is put forward.
“The Government’s actions are difficult to understand, especially when their own MPs are telling the Chancellor to pay junior doctors more fairly. Whatever the holdup, from whomever it is coming, it needs to end now. This will be the last action of our current mandate, but we are already balloting for six months more. Even now we are willing to put off these strikes to find a solution – it’s in the Health Secretary’s hands.