UK
Junior doctors strike: When and why are they walking out?

Beril Naz Hassan
Fri, 24 March 2023 

Junior doctors are protesting over pay and working conditions (PA)

Junior doctors in England are to escalate their strike action with a four-day walkout in April, the British Medical Association (BMA) has announced.

The BMA confirmed on Thursday that junior doctor members would walk out for 96 hours from 7am on April 11 in a bitter dispute over pay.

The April strike is the most significant industrial action called by any health union so far. It is a blow to Health Secretary Steve Barclay’s hope of ending industrial action in the NHS by the spring.


It comes only days after the BMA agreed to “intensive talks” on pay with Mr Barclay, raising hopes that further strikes could be avoided.

Junior doctors previously walked out for three consecutive days from March 13, causing more than 175,000 operations and procedures to be cancelled.

Unions representing nurses and paramedics have suspended strikes while members vote on a pay offer made by the Government last week.

But why are junior doctors in the NHS striking and when will the strike action take place? Here’s everything we know.

When are junior doctors going on strike?

Members of the BMA will start their 96-hour strike just after the Easter bank holiday weekend. It will run from 06.59 on Tuesday, April 11 to 06.59 on Saturday, April 15 and affect every NHS hospital in England.

PHOTOS

NHS Nurses and Ambulance Strike | Monday 6th February 2023

(Getty Images)

(REUTERS)

(REUTERS)

(REUTERS)

(REUTERS)

(PA)

(PA)

(PA)

(PA)

(REUTERS)

(PA)

Why are junior doctors striking?

The BMA’s more than 36,000 members said they had taken the decision to strike because they feel “overworked and undervalued”.

They want a new pay increase of 35 per cent to make up for inflation in the past 15 years, which has cut their earnings by 26 per cent.

The Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA) union is striking over junior doctors being “taken for granted”.

HCSA president, Dr Naru Narayanan, said: “Junior doctors have held together patient care amid a spiralling staffing crisis.

“In return for this huge emotional, mental, and physical toll, they’ve been subjected to a decade of real-terms pay cuts totalling over 26 per cent. Enough is enough.

“Our NHS is in an intolerable situation and junior doctors will not be taken for granted any more. They are taking decisive action for their patients and for their own wellbeing.

“Falling pay, increasing workloads, and dangerous levels of understaffing have driven carers across the NHS to strike. The blame for this lies solely with a complacent government, seemingly content to let patient care suffer.”

Dr Narayanan said “the ball is firmly in the Government’s court” and that “it must act now to negotiate a proper pay increase as part of a wider funding package for the NHS”.



A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We hugely value the work of junior doctors and we have been clear that supporting and retaining the NHS workforce is one of our main priorities.

“As part of a multi-year deal we agreed with the BMA, junior doctors’ pay has increased by a cumulative 8.2 per cent since 2019/20. We also introduced a higher pay band for the most experienced staff and increased rates for night shifts.

“The Health and Social Care Secretary has met with the BMA and other medical unions to discuss pay, conditions, and workload. He’s been clear he wants to continue discussing how we can make the NHS a better place to work for all.”