'Losing isn't an option' - Junior Doctors preparing to strike until next Spring

The British Medical Association are balloting it's members today.

Junior Doctors Strike
Author: Shaunna BurnsPublished 19th Jun 2023

Junior doctors are preparing to strike every month until next spring, medics have said.

The British Medical Association is balloting it's training doctors today on whether or not to extend the strike action into next year.

If members vote to continue strikes, junior doctors will take to the picket lines for three days a month, every month until March 2024.

Emma Runswick is a junior doctor working in a community mental health team in Greater Manchester:

"Losing isn't an option here. If we lose, we just make the NHS worse. So we're confident that if we stick together, strike together, we will shift the Government and we will win."

Junior doctors in England staged a 72 hour walk out last week, which saw some of the busiest days ever in A&E departments because of the warm weather.

They say they will also consider "co-ordinated action" with consultants, who are also balloting over the possibility of strike action.

Emma is also the deputy chair of the British Medical Association, she told us: "Either this Government doesn't understand the impact that their decisions to impose repeated pay cuts on doctors and other health workers is having.. or they do understand and they don't care."

"Both of those options are really quite horrific to think about."

Meanwhile NHS England boss Amanda Pritchard has said that the strike is a "serious risk to patient safety" and industrial action "creates risk and upheaval".

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