Junior doctors announce FIFTEEN more days of strikes after this month’s five-day walkout
Medics will strike between 8am and 5pm during weekdays on 5-11 October, 14-18 November and 5-9 December
JUNIOR doctors will stage another THREE five-day walkouts, the British Medical Association has announced.
The BMA's decision to stage a five-day strike later this month has already been labelled by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt as the "worst strike in NHS history".
And the medical union today confirmed it would stage identical action in October, November and December.
Junior medics will strike between 8am and 5pm during weekdays on 5-11 October, 14-18 November and 5-9 December - a total of FIFTEEN DAYS.
Jeremy Hunt blasted the British Medical Association's members who decided to reject the deal agreed between the medical union and the government this year.
He said it could lead to 100,000 operations and one million appointments being cancelled.
This month's walk-out will take place between the hours of 8am and 5pm on 12 to 16 September.
And fears the five-day strikes could become a regular nightmare became reality this afternoon.
A Department of Health spokesperson yesterday accused the BMA of "playing politics".
And Mr Hunt defended the agreement which was hammered out earlier this year after a wave of strikes, saying he wanted the junior doctors to "turn away from this path of confrontation".
He said: "The reality is that all of us want to make the NHS the safest, highest quality care and that means being able to promise patients consistently high care across all seven days of the week.
"I actually think in the 24/7 society that we live in, it is a very fair and reasonable deal.
"We did a deal in May, we had exhaustive discussions, I think we made a huge amount of progress and I would like to continue that spirit of dialogue and trust and turn away from this path of confrontation."
And the Cabinet minister added: "People will rightly ask themselves why the BMA, who championed this deal as a good deal for doctors and for patients only in May, are now saying it is such a bad deal that they want to inflict the worst doctors strike in NHS history."
It comes at a time of turmoil in the health service, with some hospitals recently forced to shut their casualty departments due to a “severe shortage” of staff.
However junior doctors are plotting to strike for one five-day block every month for the rest of the year, leaked papers reveal.
The 13-page“confidential” document declares that there should be a “rolling programme of escalated industrial action” starting as soon as September 12.
The British Medical Association’s Junior Doctors Committee is fighting the introduction of a new contract that would see members paid less for working weekends.
HUNT: AXE NHS DUDS
JEREMY Hunt said failing NHS bosses should be sacked as he waded into the Southern Health scandal yesterday..
The Health Secretary refused to comment directly on Katrina Percy, who quit as chief of the disgraced trust only to take another role there on the same £240,000 salary. But he insisted better accountability was badly needed. And he stormed: “If managers haven’t done a good job they need to move on.”
A review of the trust found it failed to investigate the unexpected deaths of hundreds of care home patients.
Previous negotiations failed and led to a series of strikes between January and April, which disrupted treatment for hundreds of thousands of patients.
It reads: “The proposal for Council’s consideration and vote is for a rolling programme of escalated industrial action beginning with five consecutive weekdays in September (8am-5pm, full withdrawal of labour) followed by further five-day walkouts in each month to the end of the year.”
Joyce Robins, of the campaign group Patient Concern, said: ‘What they are proposing puts people’s lives in danger. People will die and people will suffer. The public has been misled. Junior doctors have already got most of what they asked for. It is very upsetting.”
Ellen McCourt, chairwoman of the BMA’s junior doctors’ committee, said the Government had remained “persistently silent” on the issues that led to the rejection of the contract.
In a letter to members earlier this month, she said: “The JDC Executive has voted to reject the proposed new contract in full and to call for formal re-negotiations on all of your concerns.”
She said the BMA could not “stand idly by” and forcing a contract on doctors would be bad for patients.
“It’s the trade union dispute of this century. That’s no exaggeration. This is about to be ratcheted up by an order of magnitude.”
Daniel Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, said: “Industrial action achieves little or nothing, but places pressure on already stretched teams and services and causes worry, distress and disruption for patients, carers and their families.”
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368