Latest news with #juniorDoctors
Times
21 hours ago
- Health
- Times
BMA warns patients may not be safe during junior doctors' strike
The British Medical Association has warned that patients will not be safe in NHS hospitals during a five-day strike beginning on Friday. The doctors' union said that a decision by NHS leaders not to cancel all routine appointments means that senior doctors will be 'spread too thinly' to provide emergency and urgent care. Up to 50,000 resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, are set to join the strike from 7am on Friday July 25 to 7am on Wednesday July 30 in pursuit of a 29 per cent pay rise. Sir Jim Mackey, the chief executive of NHS England, has written to hospital bosses urging them to keep routine operations going 'to the fullest extent possible' and only cancel appointments in 'exceptional circumstances'. This is a different approach from previous strikes in 2023 and 2024, when a 'Christmas Day' service was imposed, meaning only A&E and urgent treatments.
Times
2 days ago
- Health
- Times
NHS put up with harm of last strikes, says boss — but not any more
The chief executive of NHS England has ordered hospital leaders to take a tougher line with the doctors' union when the latest strikes begin next week. Sir Jim Mackey said he would not put up with the same levels of poor care seen during the previous wave of action, setting local hospitals on a collision course with the British Medical Association (BMA). 'We all tolerated levels of harm and risk last time that I really just don't think we should anymore. We'll be taking a different approach,' he said, ahead of junior doctors' planned five-day walkout from 7am on Friday. In previous rounds, the BMA imposed a 'Christmas Day' level of service on the NHS, with cancellations and delays for tens of thousands of patients. At a meeting of NHS England's board on Thursday, Mackey said that caused much wider levels of harm than previously realised and the NHS should not accept it.
Daily Mail
14-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Wes Streeting says 'irresponsible' junior doctors' leaders hindering care plan for sickest during NHS strike and reveals he has relative fearing op axe
Wes Streeting lashed out at 'shockingly irresponsible' junior doctor's leaders today for telling medics they should not help NHS hospitals plan safe levels of care for when they are on strike. The Health Secretary accused the The British Medical Association of telling members not to inform employers if they were taking part in a planned five-day walkout that starts next week. The BMA has vowed to maintain safe levels of cover for emergency and maternity care from July 25. But Mr Streeting said their actions meant it would be harder for it to be done, and called for doctors to ignore them. Appearing before the Health and Social Care committee today he also revealed one of his relatives is among thousands who fear they will have an operation cancelled by the proposed industrial action. Mr Streeting told MPs that while he accepted the doctors had a right to strike 'I cannot fathom is how any doctor in good conscience would make it harder for managers to make sure we have safe staffing levels'. 'It would make it harder for other staff who are going to be turning up to work that day, not least the staff who have not had a higher percentage pay rise, many of whom are paid less than resident doctors, he added. Mr Streeting will hold talks with the BMA this week in the hope of averting the walk out over a demand for a 29 per cent pay rise. The government has said there is no money left for another pay rise but has left the door open to making changes to the way doctors work. This morning a self-confessed 'leftwing' doctor's leader warned only emergency care would be covered if medics walk out on strike for five days next week, putting thousands of routine operations at risk. Dr Emma Runswick, deputy chairwoman of the BMA, said that resident doctors were not seeking to 'bring the NHS to its knees' with their latest walk-out in search of an eye-watering 29 per cent pay rise. But she admitted that only emergency and maternity care would continue if they go ahead with five consecutive days of strikes starting at 7am on July 25. This afternoon Mr Streeting told MPs a member of his own family is waiting for an 'inevitable' phone call to tell them their NHS procedure has been postponed as a result of planned resident doctor strike action. He told the Health and Social Care Committee: 'We can mitigate against the impact strikes, and we will, but what we cannot do is promise that there will be no consequence and no delay, no further suffering, because there are lots of people whose procedures are scheduled over that weekend period and in the period subsequently, where the NHS has to recover from the industrial action, who will see their operations and appointments delayed. 'I have a relative in that position. 'My family are currently dreading, what I fear is an inevitable phone call saying that there is going to be a delay to this procedure. 'And I just think this is an unconscionable thing to do to the public, not least given the 28.9 per cent pay rise.' Ministers and distinguished medics have critiscised the decision, coming at a time when billions is being ploughed into the NHS in a bid to clear backlogs and improve patient care. IVF pioneer, Professor Robert Winston, resigned from the BMA last week, saying the strike could cause 'long-term damage' to people's faith in doctors. Appearing on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Dr Runswick was asked is she was a 'militant leftie'. 'Oh yeah I am leftwing but that doesn't necessarily reflect the variety of views that that doctors have,' she said. She also complained that some specialist residents were only being paid £34 per hour, adding: 'You would pay a plumber more.' Mr Streeting is sympathetic to improving working conditions for doctors, but will not budge on salaries. Today he said he was 'pleased' that resident doctors have agreed to 'sit down and talk to try and avert these strikes'. But he stressed that the Government has been 'really clear' that it will not 'reopen this year's pay award'. Lord Winston quit his membership following the strike announcement, writing in The Times: 'I've paid my membership for a long time. I feel very strongly that this isn't the time to be striking. 'I think that the country is really struggling in all sorts of ways, people are struggling in all sorts of ways. 'Strike action completely ignores the vulnerability of people in front of you.' A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said: 'The BMA have accepted the Health Secretary's offer to meet and we expect that to happen this week.' Some 90 per cent of voting resident doctors backed the strike action, with the BMA reporting a turnout of 55 per cent. The union has said that resident doctors need a pay uplift of 29.2 per cent to reverse 'pay erosion' since 2008-09. In September, BMA members voted to accept a government pay deal worth 22.3 per cent on average over two years. The 2025-26 pay deal saw resident doctors given a 4 per cent uplift plus £750 'on a consolidated basis' – working out as an average pay rise of 5.4 per cent. The BMA call for a 29.2 per cent uplift is based on Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation, the measure of average changes in the price of goods and services used by most households. Mr Streeting has said that the 'majority' of BMA resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – did not vote to strike and has called the forthcoming action 'completely unreasonable'. However Labour has also been accused of crying 'crocodile tears' - as it prepares to make walkouts even easier. Angela Rayner 's radical workers' rights Bill will soon scrap the 50 per cent turnout threshold which unions must meet to hold legal strike action. Last night Conservative business spokesman Andrew Griffith told the Mail the Government's comments were 'totally hypocritical'. He said: 'The unions are already licking their lips at the Employment Bill, which will unleash waves of low threshold strikes. By reducing the turnout required to trigger a strike, Labour are guaranteeing even more strikes. They are effectively giving unions the whip hand at the worst possible time.
Free Malaysia Today
10-07-2025
- Health
- Free Malaysia Today
Junior doctors in England announce 5-day strike over pay demand
The doctors accepted a 22% pay rise last year, covering 2023 to 2025, ending months of previous strikes. (EPA Images pic) LONDON : Junior doctors in England will go on strike from July 25-30, their trade union said today, after the British government said it could not meet their demands for an improved pay deal this year. Junior doctors, also known as resident doctors and who make up a large share of the medical workforce, were offered an average 5.4% pay rise but are asking for 29%, which they say is necessary to address years of salary erosion in real terms. Health minister Wes Streeting called the strikes 'completely unreasonable' in a statement after the five-day walk-out was announced. He had said in a letter to the British Medical Association, the doctors' union, earlier that the government could not go any higher on pay this year. 'The NHS recovery is hanging by a thread, and the BMA are threatening to pull it,' he said. 'The BMA should abandon their rush to strike and work with us to improve resident doctors' working lives instead.' The doctors had accepted a 22% pay rise last year covering 2023-2025, which had ended months of previous strikes. The new strikes threaten to once again disrupt thousands of appointments and procedures at Britain's hospitals just as the government said it had started to improve services at the state-funded National Health Service. 'Without a credible offer to keep us on the path to restore our pay, we have no choice but to call strikes,' the co-chairs of the BMA's resident doctors' committee said in a statement. The BMA said it had met Streeting today but that the government wanted to focus on improving the non-pay elements of doctors' work.
Daily Mail
10-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
TOM HARRIS: Yet again it's patients who will be the casualties in a battle over who really runs Britain
The battle lines have been drawn. We know who the combatants are in the latest pay row in the NHS – the doctors and the Government. And, sadly, we know who the casualties will be – the patients. Junior doctors – whose extraordinary self-regard is evidenced in their new insistence on being called 'resident' doctors – have announced they will abandon their duties for five days at the end of this month in support of a staggering 29 per cent pay demand. That's on top of a 22 per cent increase over two years already given to them last year.
