Junior Doctors plan for a five-day strike in July.

News - 28 June 2023

Junior Doctors are to hold a five-day strike in mid-July in what would be the longest period of industrial action in the history of the health service. The British Medical Association (BMA) confirmed that the five-day walkout would run from 7am, Thursday 13 July, until 7am Tuesday 18th July. This will be the fourth round of strikes by Junior Doctors since the start of the year.

Their most recent action, from 14-17 June last week, affected more than 108,000 hospital or community hospital outpatient appointments or inpatient operations and procedures. In total, unresolved NHS staff pay disputes, including action by nurses and paramedics, have caused delays for more than 648,000 patients since mid-December 2022.

In evidence to MPs on 20 June, Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the junior doctors had “collapsed the talks” with government, because they refused to discuss anything less than a 35% pay increase, or 49% for a multi-year deal up to the end of March 2025. The government had "tried to build trust in the talks by agreeing to a BMA-named intermediary but to no avail", he also told the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee.

The BMA say Junior Doctors in the NHS in England are taking strike action in 2023 to:

  1. achieve full pay restoration to reverse the steep decline in pay faced by junior doctors since 2008/9
  2. agree on a mechanism with the Government to prevent any future declines against the cost of living and inflation
  3. reform the DDRB (Doctors' and Dentists' Review Body) process so pay increases can be recommended independently and fairly to safeguard the recruitment and retention of junior doctors.

The BMA also announced this week findings of a survey showing that 53% of Junior Doctors had been inundated with overseas job opportunities in the past four months, including Australian jobs advertised directly at picket lines. More than 80% of survey respondents also said they believed their patients were supportive of their industrial action.

Patients are asked to attend all appointments as usual, during the upcoming strikes unless they are contacted by health care services to say they will need to be rearranged. 

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