Consultants and junior doctors will strike collectively through the Conservative Party convention, the British Medical Association (BMA) has introduced.
The unprecedented hospital doctors’ strike will happen on Sept 20 and Oct 2, 3 and 4, leaving hospitals offering solely “Christmas day” cowl.
The dates introduced by the BMA coincide with the Tory convention, and Nickie Aiken, a deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, mentioned on Thursday that the timing “makes it clear their strike plans are politically motivated”.
Dr Vivek Trivedi, the BMA junior physician committee co-chairman, mentioned: “We will maintain a nationwide rally in Manchester on Oct 3 on the doorstep of the Conservative Party Conference.
“Doctors from throughout England, throughout completely different branches of observe, will present we’re prepared as ever to struggle for doctors to be valued and paid their value.”
Junior doctors have demanded a 35 per cent pay rise and consultants, who’re within the high two per cent of earners, declare their incomes have fallen by 35 per cent in actual phrases over in 15 years.
Both have already held repeated strikes, which consultants have warned will hamper efforts to chop NHS ready lists. Health service chiefs have mentioned it’s a “nightmare scenario” and that “patients are paying the price”.
Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, mentioned sufferers had been “shouldering the brunt of the BMA’s relentlessness” and known as the joint strike “callous and calculated disruption”.
Waiting lists are at a file excessive of 7.6 million and proceed to develop, with greater than 900,000 appointments cancelled due to strikes.
