Resident doctors start five-day walkout at region's hospitals in pay dispute

On Wednesday morning resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, were so for picketing at Birmingham Queen Elizabeth Hospital, but it is thought that others from County Hospital in Stafford, New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton; Walsall Manor Hospital and Dudley's Russells Hall Hospital also walked out after the British Medical Association (BMA) said 83 per cent of its members had backed the action. 

The walk out will run from 7am Wednesday to 7am on Monday, December 22 and follows a Government offer which included increasing speciality training posts and covering out-of-pocket expenses like exam fees.

But Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the resident doctors committee at the BMA said the latest walk-out was the result of “hurried, last-minute offers” from the Government.

He said: “It is well past the time for ministers to come up with a genuinely long-term plan. If they can simply provide a clear route to responsibly raise pay over a number of years, and enough genuinely new jobs instead of recycled ones, then there need not be any more strikes for the remainder of this Government."