Junior doctors have voted to rejected offer of a new contract by the Government.
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Dr Johann Malawana announced his resignation shortly after junior doctors and medical students across England voted to reject a contract deal.
The result is a setback for the BMA, which supported the new deal that was put to its members, having stoked anger among its members over the government’s imposition of an earlier version of the contract.
“By choosing this route rather than building on progress made and addressing the outstanding issues which led to a rejection of the contract by many junior doctors, the Government is simply storing up problems for the future”.
“But we are where we are and I believe the course of action outlined in this statement is the best way to help the NHS move on”.
Emma Coombe who works as a junior doctor in Paediatrics at Derriford said: “A bit like the referendum split, up until yesterday junior doctors here were split about the contract, but today we seem to have united in defiance against it”.
He said proceeding with the contract was the only way to end the current impasse. Dr Malawana said the NHS was lurching “headlong into a wider crisis” caused by the Government.
Doctors have been out on strike six times – two of them all-out stoppages – over the terms and conditions that were on offer regarding their contracts.
Diane Abbott, the new shadow secretary of state for health, today called on the government to give NHS workers from European Union countries a guarantee that they will be able to stay in the UK.
In the deal, junior doctors will have a premium pay if doctors work seven or more weekends in a calendar year.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Mr Hunt said it had been a “difficult decision” but he had been left with no choice, especially given the uncertainty facing the country.
Any night shift – on any day – which starts at or after 8pm and lasts more than eight hours, and which finishes at or by 10am the following day, would also result in an enhanced pay rate of 37% for all the hours worked. New rotas are scheduled to begin for 6,000 newly qualified doctors in August, with the new pay system due to begin later this year.
Senior doctors have warned that imposing the contract will reduce rather than increase the number of recent medical graduates who choose to make their career in the English NHS.
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“We need a Government that can command the support of patients and professionals in the NHS and this Government has shown it can do neither”.
