How many patients could be affected by the action?
Advertisement
GMC chief executive Nick Dickson warned about the impact on patients.
Junior doctors are proposing further all-out strikes which will see them walk out from 12 to 16 September, between 8am and 5pm, with more industrial action expected to follow.
First, it makes no mention of the obvious fact, agreed by all, that the root cause of the dispute is Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s decision to impose new contracts on junior doctors – contracts which 58 per cent of BMA members voted to reject after renewed negotiations in July.
Hunt also tried to exploit divisions in the BMA, the doctors’ union.
Shadow health secretary Diane Abbott said junior doctors have “absolutely no confidence in Jeremy Hunt and this Tory Government”.
The union later said junior doctors would also strike on October 5-7 and October 10-11, and for five consecutive days from November 14 and from December 5. Porter would not say what the split in the vote was, but the BMA later said reports of a 16-14 result were inaccurate.
“Many patients may be very unwell or vulnerable and so we can not predict the distress or pain this will cause to everyone this will affect”, said Murphy.
“We have a simple ask of the Government: stop the imposition”.
“NHS Improvement will be working closely with NHS England to support them in this”.
The prime minister’s remarks, during a visit to a vehicle assembly plant, came hours after the BMA sanctioned the walk-outs, the first of which will be held on September 12.
Ms May called on the union to cancel the strikes, adding that the NHS had “record levels of funding” and “more doctors than we’ve seen in its history”.
The BMA said it will call off the strikes if the governement refrains from imposing the contract. “That, to me, is playing politics”, he said.
“What needs to happen now is the secretary of state to get round a table urgently with the BMA and recognise that the junior doctors are the heart, soul, and lifeblood of our National Health Service”, he said.
“We did a deal in May, we had exhaustive discussions, I think we made a huge amount of progress and I would like to continue that spirit of dialogue and trust and turn away from this path of confrontation”.
Employers felt the dispute had gone on too long.
She said: “The Government is putting patients first, the BMA should be putting patients first – not playing politics”. However, we issued advice earlier in this dispute both to senior doctors and doctors in training, and we will now consider whether further guidance is needed.
Fears over the safety of patients have been raised, with figures suggesting up to 5,000 operations a day could be cancelled during the strike action.
Dr Porter insisted that “the council is united behind junior doctors in their struggle” and predicted the wider profession would unite.
Advertisement
A spokesman said: “We are acutely aware that the NHS is under extreme pressure at the moment”.
