Consultant doctors in England are to stage a two-day strike next month in a dispute over pay and working conditions.\n<\/p>\n
The walkout will begin on November 25 at 6:59 am GMT, with consultants staffing emergency care only. The arrangement, known as Christmas Day cover, is likely to have a major impact on most routine and elective or planned services.\n<\/p>\n
The announcement comes after talks with the government over the past month, following a vote in favour of strike action by British Medical Association members in July.\n<\/p>\n
Consultants, the most senior doctors in the NHS, were given a 3.5 per cent pay increase this year.<\/p>\n
However, the BMA argues that pay has fallen by a quarter over the past 17 years, once inflation is taken into account.<\/p>\n
The union is also seeking a reduction in the standard working week from 40 to 35 hours, higher pay for out-of-hours work and changes to pensions, including greater flexibility over when they can be taken.\n<\/p>\n
In a joint statement, BMA consultants committee co-chairs Dr Helen Neary and Dr Shanu Datta said they had tried to negotiate with the government in \u201cgood faith\u201d, but \u201ctime-and-time again ministers have kicked the can down the road\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, that road has now run out, and we have been forced to announce strikes.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cConsultants take their responsibilities incredibly seriously, and striking does not come naturally, but we are hearing loud and clear from the profession that they have had enough.\u201d <\/p>\n
According to the BBC, consultants\u2019 average earnings exceed \u00a3150,000 a year. Basic pay starts at \u00a3113,500, with the most experienced earning \u00a3150,500, while many receive additional payments and awards.\n<\/p>\n
In the strike ballot, 76 per cent of consultants who took part voted in favour of industrial action, with just over half of eligible BMA members participating.\n<\/p>\n
The government said this represented only around one in five consultants employed by the NHS in England, noting that nearly half were not BMA members.\n<\/p>\n
Health Secretary Yvette Cooper said the government had been in \u201cconstructive discussions\u201d with the BMA, adding that it was \u201cdisappointing\u201d that strike dates had been announced.\n<\/p>\n
She said taking strike action would be \u201cirresponsible\u201d and \u201cplace the health service under even greater pressure\u201d.<\/p>\n
The government estimates that meeting all the BMA\u2019s demands would cost between \u00a32bn and \u00a33bn a year.\n<\/p>\n
The announcement comes as consultants and other doctors are taking part in strike action in Northern Ireland during November.\n<\/p>\n
Consultants last took strike action in England in 2023. The long-running dispute involving resident doctors in England ended earlier this year after more than three years of intermittent strike action.\n <\/p>\n
Source: <\/p>\n
Consultant doctors in England are to stage a two-day strike next month in a dispute over pay and working conditions. The walkout will begin on November 25 at 6:59 am… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1396,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}