Now ANOTHER group of NHS medics could strike: Specialist doctors balloted on whether they want to stage walkouts
- Ballot could see another 15,600 NHS medics launch a wave of industrial action
- READ MORE: NHS consultants charging hospitals £3,000 a shift during strike
Another group of doctors could soon join consultants, junior doctors and nurses and launch their own wave of devastating NHS strikes.
The British Medical Association (BMA) has announced that specialist, associate specialist and specialty (SAS) doctors will hold an indicative ballot for industrial action.
It comes as junior doctors and consultants today began their first joint walkout in the health service’s 75-year history as part of an ongoing dispute over pay.
There are around 15,600 SAS doctors working in England.
These doctors work alongside junior doctors and consultants in hospitals, but some also work in the community.
The announcement of yet another medic strike ballot comes as other medics, junior doctors and consultants started their first joint walkout as part of an ongoing dispute over pay. Pictured: NHS consultants and junior doctors outside St.Thomas’ hospital in London today
Consultants in England have taken to the picket lines on four separate days so far this summer, while junior doctors have staged 19 days of strike action this year. Both will return to the picket lines together on October, 2, 3 and 4. Radiographers are also set to join medics by walking out for 24 hours from 8am on October 3. The strike days also coincide with Rishi Sunak’s first Tory party conference as leader and prime minister
Union officials said that in the last 15 years, SAS doctors have seen their real-terms pay ‘plummet by as much as 31 per cent’.
The SAS doctors’ action ballot will open on September 25 and close on October 16.
The ballot is indicative, meaning it won’t be used to launch industrial action.
However, such votes, which measure union members’ appetite for actions like a strike, are generally a step towards a formal ballot.
Dr Ujjwala Mohite, chairwoman of the BMA’s SAS committee, said: ‘It’s with a heavy heart that the SAS committee has decided to go ahead with an indicative ballot for industrial action, but the Government has left us with no choice.
READ MORE: £134,000-a-year NHS consultants charging hospitals up to £3,000 PER SHIFT for covering striking medics
Pictured, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn meets striking consultants and junior doctors today outside Whittington Hospital in London
‘SAS doctors are not commonly known, but they make up the trinity of hospital doctors, delivering frontline patient care every day.
‘Like our colleagues, we’ve seen our workload dramatically increase in recent years, but our pay hasn’t risen with inflation.
‘Being asked to do more for less has created a culture where we feel ignored, taken for granted, and undervalued.’
She said it’s ‘about time the Government listened’ as the NHS can’t afford to lose any more medics.
Dr Mohite added: ‘All we want to do is care for our patients, but that’s put at risk when doctors feel undervalued and end up wondering whether they even want to stay in the NHS.
‘Today’s announcement – which comes as our consultant and junior doctor colleagues take to the pickets together – sends a clear message to the Government that we, and most importantly our patients, are worth more than this.
‘The Government cannot keep its head in the sand any longer and must address the undervaluing of doctors.
‘This is an opportunity to stop another bout of NHS industrial action, and we implore the Government to take it.’
If the strike ballot is successful, it will mean three major groups of NHS doctors will be in open dispute with Government over pay.
NHS junior doctors and consultants were accused of ‘going against the ethics of medicine’ after taking to picket lines today to stage the most disruptive strike in NHS history, with more than 100,000 cancellations expected.
The consultant strike action is running until 7am on Thursday, while junior doctors are staging their own action from today, which will wrap up at 7am on Saturday.
England’s backlog, for procedures like hip and knee replacements, now stands at 7.6million, official figures revealed last week. It means roughly one in seven people across the country are currently stuck in the system awaiting care. More than 380,000 patients have gone a year without being treated, often in agony
Top medics warned said the ‘awful scenario’ will put patients at ‘the highest level of risk in living memory’, and affect ‘many more groups of patients who haven’t been disrupted by previous strikes’.
Many patients are experiencing second or third delays to their treatment.
Cancer patients could be at particular risk, with ‘some of the very sickest patients maybe suffering the most’.
The BMA argues that the medics have seen their pay eroded by 35 per cent over the last 15 years.
As a result, junior doctors have called for a full 35 per cent pay uplift, while consultants set their pay demand 11 per cent.
The Government has offered junior doctors a pay rise between 8.1 and 10.3 per cent, while consultants have been offered 6 per cent.
It also emerged today that NHS hospitals are paying consultants up to £3,000 a shift to cover strike action by fellow medics.
University Hospitals Plymouth handed the senior medic the sum for working a 12-and-a-half-hour night shift, which was supposed to be performed by a junior doctor.
This is almost one-and-a-half times what a typical hospital consultant would earn in a week, and up to four times the weekly salary of a junior doctor.
The BMA tells medics to call for the sky-high rates of up to £269 per hour for working a shift that was supposed to be covered by a striking medic.
The Department for Health and Social Care was contacted for comment on the SAS doctors ballot.
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