Doctors Strike Threat Over 'Insulting' Pay Deal

Junior doctors are expected to vote to go on strike later in a row over working conditions and pay.

Government proposals for new contracts have angered medical staff who say they are being misled over claims they will receive large pay rises.

Some doctors are threatening to leave the profession or work abroad as they believe they will lose pay.

Industrial action will take place on three dates next month if it goes ahead as proposed. They are:

:: Tuesday 1 December: Christmas Day levels of junior doctor staffing only from 8am for 24 hours

:: Tuesday 8 December, 8am-5pm: full strike of all junior doctors

:: Wednesday 16 December, 8am-5pm: full strike of all junior doctors

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has introduced the new junior doctors contract to tackle the problem of under-staffing in hospitals and surgeries at the weekends as the Government pushes for a seven-day NHS.

Under the revised offer, Mr Hunt has also extended the defined "unsocial hours" that qualify for higher pay rates to include Saturday evenings after 7pm. Previously he had said that doctors would only have received the higher rate after 10pm.

Currently junior doctors get higher pay for working between 7pm and 7am and all day on Saturday and Sunday.

The contract reiterates the "cast-iron" guarantee that doctors will work an average 48-hour week, with a maximum set at 72 hours, down from 91.

But Dr Anna Starling, who works in a hospital in the Midlands, accused the Government of "insulting" her profession by trying to give the impression junior doctors were being greedy.

"It was originally suggested that we would be receiving a pay rise of between 14% and 19% in return for the new contracts, but that figure has been reduced to 11%," she said.

"A lot of my colleagues have children, and the changes will affect them considerably.

"A suggested new rota has been released, but it is totally unworkable. We don't want to strike but we have reached a point where we have to do something."

Mr Hunt has pledged that no junior doctor working within legal limits will face a pay cut or be forced to work longer hours.