Why are junior doctors striking? Dates, demands and what it means for patients
JUNIOR doctors have announced five days of strike action ahead of a controversial new contract due to come into effect in October.
To understand the dispute and learn what each side wants take a look over our guide below.
What is this dispute all about?
The Government wants to introduce a new contract for junior doctors working up to consultant level to replace one it says is outdated.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt wants to cut the number of hours for which junior doctors can claim extra pay on weekends.
This will offset a hike they will get in basic pay.
The issue over weekend work and weekend pay has been a sticking point in the long-running dispute.
Hunt wants to introduce a seven-day working week arguing people still fall ill over the weekend and on public holidays.
He believes that having fewer staff on duty means care is not the same as for Monday through to Fridays.
Discussions between junior doctors and the Government started in 2012 but broke down in 2014.
Junior doctors planned to go on strike in December last year but it was called off at the last minute when the British Medication Association entered talks with the Government and NHS employers.
Those talks ended with no resolution.
Between January this year and the end of April junior doctors staged five rounds of industrial action.
During the most recent walkout in April they stopped providing emergency care for the first time in NHS history.
Overall around 150,000 operations and appointments were cancelled and needed to be rearranged as a result.
In May the BMA agreed to re-enter talks with the Department of Health and a deal was reached after 10 days of intensive talks.
What are the terms of the new deal?
Under the agreement junior doctors will receive "premium pay" on Saturdays and Sundays.
The majority of doctors are expected to work seven or more weekends every year.
They will receive a percentage of their annual salary for working these weekends - ranging from 3% for working one weekend in seven, to up to 10% if they work one weekend in two.
Any night shift on any day of the week - which starts at or after 8pm, lasts more than eight hours, and finishes at or after 10am the following day - will also result in an enhanced pay rate of 37% for all the hours worked.
The deal also sets out systems of payment for doctors who are on call.
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This allowance is applied as 8% of basic pay over and above any weekend allowance.
Across the board there will be an average basic pay increase of between 10% and 11%.
This is down from the 13% originally put forward by the Government.
There are also new agreements aimed at reducing discrimination against anyone who takes leave to care for others, such as new mothers or those on parental leave.
This includes accelerated training support to enable people to catch up such as mentoring and study leave funding.
If a deal was reached then what on earth is going on?
After the BMA reached an agreement with the Government they put the deal to a ballot of junior doctors and final and penultimate year medical students.
There was a 68% turnout with 42% voting in favour of the contract and 58% voting against.
After the vote Johann Malawana, who Mr Hunt said had seen the contract as a good deal, stepped down as head of the junior doctors committee.
He was replaced by Dr Ellen McCourt.
Junior doctors argue that since its inception in 1948 the NHS has worked on the basis of five non-emergency days and seven days of emergency care.
Mr Hunt wants to change and is asking doctors to stretch thos five days to seven.
What's this discussion about death rates about?
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has angered junior doctors with repeated references to higher death rates for patients in NHS hospitals at weekends.
While the research does suggest higher mortality rates following admission at weekends than during the week, researchers have been cautious about suggesting staffing issues are to blame.
Doctors accuse Mr Hunt of conflating the arguments by saying that unless contracts are reformed immediately patients will continue to die.
What is the level of BMA council support for the strike action?
The BMA will not disclose the vote result which ratified the latest strike action but said suggested figures of a knife-edge 16-14 split are "not correct".
Important dates
Junior doctors will now go on strike from September 12 to September 16.
They also plan to strike on the 5,6,7, 10 and 11th of October.
Further action is pencilled in for November 14 to November 18 and December 5 to December 9.
Patients Association’s chief executive Katherine Murphy said she is “gravely troubled” at the “catastrophic impact this will have on so many patients and their families."
What is a junior doctor?
There are more than 50,000 junior doctors in England.
Some of those health professionals are just out of medical school while others have a decade of experience behind them.
The job title defines anyone below consultant level.
What do they want in this dispute?
Junior doctors want Mr Hunt to put plans to impose a new contract on hold while talks are held on details.
He has refused.
The BMA has said they will call off the strike if the Government don't impose the new contract.
Junior doctors say they don't just want to be paid more for doing extra hours.
They say their action is about having more funding to pay for medical staff who will have to cover the weekdays when staff have been moved over to increased weekend care.
They says the new contract will stretch them to "ridiculous" levels.
What do Jeremy Hunt and the Government want?
Mr Hunt says a deal was reached in May when the BMA put the proposal to his members, and so further strike action shouldn't be taking place.
He says cannot understand why "a devastating strike, the like of which the NHS has never seen before" is taking place after an agreement was reached.
Mr Hunt said talks are resuming over four remaining issues two of which have been dealt with.
The two remaining issues are around Saturday pay and and automatic pay for part-time workers.
How have hospitals dealt with past strike action?
Senior consultants have been drafted in as cover to treat patients during past action.
What is the British Medical Association?
The British Medication is the trade union and professional body representing doctors in the UK.