The British Medical Association (BMA) has announced that hospital consultants in England will strike on Thursday and Friday this week and again on 24 to 25 August warning we “are in this for the long haul.”
The BMA said the strikes are in response to Downing Street imposing “another real-terms pay cut” on doctors last week which amounts to a “derisory, sub-inflation” increase of less than 6% for consultants.
Dr Vishal Sharma, who chairs the BMA consultants committee, said: “The Government has once again imposed a savage real-terms pay cut on consultants.
“When inflation is running at more than 11%, this is nothing short of insulting. Consultants have always been clear that industrial action is a last resort but in the face of a Government intent on devaluing consultants’ expertise and their lack of regard for the impact this is having on the NHS, we have been left with no choice.
“We’ve had our pay cut year after year, put our lives on the line during a pandemic and now are managing a record backlog of care.
“The Prime Minister says cutting these waiting lists is a priority but then undermines his own policy by showing he doesn’t value those charged with delivering it. Cutting pay once again shows the Government’s complete disregard for the profession.
“Meanwhile, there can be no better demonstration of the need to reform the pay review system for doctors than our pay review body recommending a further real-terms pay cut on top of the successive pay cuts over the last 15 years, at a point when the profession has been pushed to take industrial action and are leaving the NHS.”
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