The health secretary has offered the junior doctors an 11% pay rise in a bid to resolve the dispute, but a few of the medics have warned that the new work agreement was more unsafe and actually left junior doctors financially worse off.
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If the ballot passes, junior doctors in England will take industrial action on three dates in December.
The ballot closed on Wednesday evening at 5pm.
“Members of the public – including Radio City DJ Pete Price – were also encouraged to pose for photos with picture frames bearing the words “I support junior doctors”, “I love the NHS” and “#NHSselfie”.
Junior doctors working in the North West have been telling Granada Reports why they’ve voted to go on strike.
There is expected to be mass disruption to the NHS, with hospitals forced to cancel outpatient clinics and non-urgent operations.
Hospital chiefs have insisted their A&E departments will be safe if junior doctors strike next month.
“We are prepared to negotiate about anything within the current pay envelope – but I am sure you understand that we have to reserve the right to make changes to contracts if there is no progress on one of the issues preventing a truly seven-day NHS, as promised in our manifesto and endorsed by the British people at the last election”.
He said maximum working hours per week would fall from 91 to 72 under the new deal.
Doctors across the country stood in city centres where they spoke to shoppers, many who were confused over Jeremy Hunt’s dooming rhetoric over the Junior Doctors’ contract he is imposing on them.
In an email to all BMA members, the association’s council chair, Mark Porter, wrote: “We are releasing this information at this early stage because we want to give as much notice as possible”.
“Our dispute is with the Government and our ballot for industrial action is a last resort in the face of their continued intransigence”.
These include withdrawal of the threat to impose the new contract, proper recognition of unsocial hours as premium time, no disadvantage for those working unsocial hours compared with the current system, and no disadvantage for those working less than full- time and taking parental leave compared with the current system.
After the proposed strikes were announced, Mr Hunt said: “Threatening extreme action is totally unwarranted and will harm vulnerable patients”.
“This is good for the NHS, good for doctors, good for patients and even at this late hour, I hope the BMA will call off their damaging strike”.
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“Rather than striking, the BMA should return to the negotiations they walked away from a year ago and put their patients first”.
