Junior doctors have announced 15 more days of strikes spanning October, November and December in their ongoing contract dispute.
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The chair of the BMA council, Dr Mark Porter, said the tough decision to announce five consecutive days of strike from 12 September was only agreed upon after “long and hard debates”.
Further strike action has been confirmed at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital by junior doctors.
Six strikes have already taken place across England during the dispute, causing disruption to hundreds of thousands of patients who have had appointments and operations cancelled.
The BMA said key concerns raised by junior doctors included how the contract will affect those working less than full time, a majority of whom are women, and the impact it will have on junior doctors working the most weekends.
The Tory Health Secretary was responding to criticism of his handling of the longest doctors’ strike in NHS history.
This comes as Jeremy Hunt compared himself to Labour great Nye Bevan as he defended his disastrous record presiding over the NHS.
He says that, in the 24/7 seven-day society in which we live, what is on offer is a very fair and reasonable deal and will allow the NHS to offer “the safest, highest care” it can. It is too important to be rushed to meet a political deadline.
“The decision of the British Medical Association’s leadership to call on doctors in training in England to take rolling, all-out industrial action is unprecedented and represents a serious escalation of this dispute”.
At the centre of dispute is a new contract that Hunt intends to impose on junior doctors – all those below the level of consultant – in a phased introduction schedule to start this autumn.
Joyce Robins, of the campaign group Patient Concern, said: ‘What they are proposing puts people’s lives in danger.
The BMA is unhappy with the new contract, which it says will impose damaging changes to junior doctors’ pay and conditions.
He warned junior A&E medics will draw “battle lines” and inflict “misery” on patients when they leave their posts over his 7-day contracts.
What are the two remaining issues that Mr Hunt claims are outstanding?
” Given the intransigence of the Government, this decision was always likely”, she said.
“The crisis in the NHS is deepening, with closures of hospitals and key departments across the country while almost all waiting times are rising”, she said.
Hunt has also come under criticism as their are rumours he has been given the green-light to begin a huge privatisation programme across the NHS, which many fear could the beginning of the end for universal free health care. “Jeremy Hunt should stop posturing about imposing a junior doctors’ contract, scrap it, and re-enter talks”.
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Speaking to Good Morning Britain on Thursday, he said: “It’s devastating news for many people”.
