Junior Doctors Ballot For Strike Action

Junior doctors have rejected the Health Secretary's last-minute pay offer and will go ahead with their ballot for strike action.

Jeremy Hunt attempted to avert the threat of industrial action by writing personally to junior doctors offering an 11% pay rise as part of the new contract due to be introduced in the summer.

However, the British Medical Association has rejected his advances and refused to return to negotiations. It has accused Mr Hunt of using "megaphone diplomacy" rather than engaging properly in talks with the medical profession over the changes.

Under the terms of the new contract, junior doctors would lose some of their higher rate pay - they currently get extra for working between 7pm and 7am on Monday to Friday and all day on Saturday and Sunday.

Mr Hunt wants to restrict this to 10pm to 7am Monday to Saturday and all day on Sunday and to reduce maximum working hours from 91 to 72.

He says the changes will gear the NHS up for providing a seven-day service and help to reduce the high mortality rates for weekend care.

Junior doctors fear the measures could see their pay drop by 30% but Mr Hunt has insisted only 1% (500 doctors) would see a pay cut - and then only because they were working unsafe hours anyway.

The BMA says Mr Hunt's new proposals do not offer safeguards on pay and conditions and are misleading.

It will now ask members if they want to take part in a strike or other industrial action just short of a strike. The BMA has suggested an emergency care-only action, with staffing at Christmas Day levels.

The ballot runs until 18 November.

Johann Malawana, the BMA's junior doctor committee chairman, said: "Without the reasonable assurances junior doctors require, the BMA has been left with little option but to continue with plans to ballot members on industrial action.

"This is not a decision we take lightly. However, the Government's refusal to work with us through genuine negotiations, and its continued threat to impose an unsafe and unfair contract, leaves us with no alternative."