Resident doctors strike: We look at when, where and why resident doctors across West Midlands are taking strike action this week
As the latest strike action around pay and conditions is set to affect hospitals and GP surgeries across the region, we look at why the strikes are happening and the impact it will have on the health service.
There is set to be several days of disruption after resident doctors in England rejected a fresh offer from the Government to end the long-running row over jobs and pay, saying that it “does not go far enough”.
The medics, formerly known as junior doctors, are set to strike for five days from 7am on Friday until 7am on November 19.
We've taken a look at the strike plan and have put together this list of what is happening, why it is happening, where picket lines are taking place and how health services across the region will be affected.
What are the reasons for the strike action?
The British Medical Association (BMA) said the resident doctors strike is a result of a dispute over two issues.
The first is pay, with the BMA arguing that resident doctors have experienced a real terms pay cut of 21 per cent since 2008/9 due to pay awards given to resident doctors over that time being below inflation.
The BMA is now calling for pay restoration for resident doctors, with a demand of a 26 per cent pay raise.
The second issue relates to training places for resident doctors, with the BMA saying that after completing their first two years as a foundation doctor, residents go on to train in specialities, like neurology or surgery.
The BMA has argued that there are currently an insufficient number of training places for resident doctors to go into, with as many as 30,000 doctors applying for around 10,000 places, something the BMA said both stunts the careers of doctors and reduces the ability for the NHS to reduce waiting lists.
What was being offered by the Government?
On the training places dispute, the health secretary Wes Streeting has said the government will introduce an additional 2,000 training places by 2028, with 1,000 of them being added next year.
He also said that the current pay offer from the government is for an average pay rise of 4 per cent plus a consolidated £750 payment.
The Government has also said that Resident doctors pay has increased by 28.9 per cent across the last three years and, for the second consecutive year, resident doctors received the highest pay increase across the public sector of 5.4 per cent this year, with two years in a row of above inflation pay increases.
