The BMA has called on the Government to ‘step up’, as resident doctors vote to back strike action over unemployment and training place shortages.
Foundation year one doctors in England have overwhelmingly backed the prospect of industrial action following the results of a ballot published today.
The vote, which saw 97 per cent of doctors endorse the option of striking, means that resident doctors in England now have a separate mandate for industrial action alongside that secured in the fight over pay restoration.
The ballot, which had a turnout of 65 per cent, comes following a recent survey of more than 4,000 resident doctors by the BMA which found that 34 per cent said they had no substantive employment or regular work from August this year.
Responding to the ballot announcement, RDC chair Jack Fletcher (pictured above) said a clear message had been sent that job security at a time of workforce crisis in the NHS could not be tolerated.
He added that while doctors did not want to take strike action, it was now up to the Government to take the steps necessary to address past failures and end the dispute over training places.
He said: ‘The result of today’s ballot makes it clear that the Government will now need to step up to the plate.
‘Doctors have [today] spoken clearly: they won’t accept that they face a career of insecurity at a time when the demand for doctors is huge. Yet successive governments have been unable to embrace the changes both doctors and patients are crying out for.
‘We do not want to have to strike, but we will if we are left with no choice. The Government has the power to end both of these disputes now: it must use this opportunity to make the changes that are desperately needed.’
As a result of inadequate workforce planning by successive governments, the numbers of specialty training places available to resident doctors in England has failed woefully to keep pace with the numbers of applicants.
This year alone has seen more than 30,000 doctors compete for just 10,000 places in first round of specialty training, leaving thousands of doctors facing the prospect of unemployment at a time when the NHS is critically understaffed.
While the Government has acknowledged the insufficiency in training places, its 10-year plan for the NHS in England has only committed to creating an additional 1,000 places over a period of three years.
The shortage of training places and job insecurity is further compounded by ongoing struggles over restoring pay, with resident doctors in England having suffered a 21 per cent erosion in pay since 2008.
Dr Fletcher said that with disputes over pay and training now linked, ministers now had the opportunity to formulate a plan to address both issues and bring stability to future generations of doctors.
He said: ‘It makes no sense that despite the need to bring down waiting lists and increase capacity for patients to be seen, thousands of willing and skilled doctors are unable to find the work to begin treating them.
‘By putting these two disputes – pay and jobs – together, we are now giving Government a chance to create a plan that supports and develops the workforce of the next generation. Patients need doctors to have jobs. Doctors need to know they will have jobs. And they need to know they will be paid what they’re worth.'
The RDC will be contacting members in due course to outline plans for next steps.