To drive their message home to the government the junior doctors have announced more industrial action and called for a judicial review into contract imposition.
Strike dates are –
8am to 5pm on Wed 27 April
Full withdrawal of labour by junior doctors between the hours stated above. Other doctors and staff will continue to provide care during this time.
The Junior Doctors will be on standby, between the hours stated above, to return to work if there is an emergency but they will not do any routine work.
The Junior Doctors will be on standby, between the hours stated above, to return to work if there is an emergency but they will not do any routine work.
FORTY thousand junior doctors voted for strike action, with a majority of 98 per cent on a 76 per cent turnout, in protest at Government plans to impose new working conditions and pay structures.The proposed changes would remove enhanced wage levels for weekend working and could lead to junior doctors being forced to work for long hours that would leave them too tired to make safe decisions about patient care.
They’ve been in and out of ACAS and on strike several times but the government has refused to back down on imposing dangerous new working practices with Jeremy Hunt’s Department of Health failing to address doctors’ concerns regarding “robust contractual safeguards on safe working” and “proper recognition for those working unsocial hours” in the contracts being forced on the workers. Now Jeremy Hunt want’s to impose the new contract on junior doctors.
The BMA is now set to launch a judicial review following the embarrassing revelation that the government appears to have failed to undertake an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) prior to its decision to impose a new contract on junior doctors in England. In trying to push through these changes, the government failed to give proper consideration to the impact this contract could have on junior doctors.
The judicial review will seek to overturn the decision to impose the new contract and provide a declaration that the secretary of state had acted unlawfully.
Imposing this contract will seriously undermine the ability of the NHS to recruit and retain junior doctors in areas of medicine with the most unsocial hours, where there are already staffing shortages.
Bristol Trades Union Council is urging all trade unionists to support the junior doctor picket lines and other events in their support. We’ve not received details of what other activities are happening on strike days. So if you’re planning to give solidarity messages to the pickets and doctors please check details before traveling.
This will occur from 8am till at least about 12pm at the following hospitals:
- Southmead Hospital
- BRI – at first outside the main entrance/post-graduate education centre, may move later
- Callington Road Hospital
Junior Doctors are of course ever grateful for support and supporters are of course welcome to visit pickets, bring fruit for breakfast etc. and, if in cars, hoot in support. In view however of very tight picketing restrictions (6 per entrance) and anticipated appetite for doctors to also support pickets, you may be asked to move away from the actual picket.
A number of “Meet The Doctors” events are organised during the day to inform the public. The likelihood is that they will start from approx. 10 am to 2 pm. There will be NHS selfie frames, petitions, leaflets and banners, but feel free to bring your own.
They will be held, check before setting out, at:
- Clifton Triangle (by Jason Donervan), Bristol
- Fountains (opposite the Hippodrome), Bristol
- Turbo Island (opposite Hamilton House in Stokes Croft), Bristol
- North Street (by the Tobacco Factory), Bristol
A very clear explanation on the BMA’s current position: http://oneprofession.bma.org.uk/
A recent interview explaining the underlying key concerns with the proposed contract: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJpVAYOazeI
Bristol Trades Union Council 
The Morning Star, 19th April 2016, carried this front page story under the banner “Heavy-handed Hunt won’t back down over docs’ contract”
“WRECKING Tory Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt shrugged off Labour demands for sense yesterday after claims that he had done a U-turn over his decision to force a new contract on junior doctors.
“Shadow health secretary Heidi Alexander pushed him to answer whether he would “rail through” his plans to make junior doctors work more weekend hours by enforcing a contract from August. The medics say it will endanger patient safety.
“She said Mr Hunt needed to end this “sorry saga” and stop his “misplaced bravado and bullishness” that has led to four strikes by 50,000 junior doctors with resolution to the dispute.”
The complete story can be read on the Morning Star by following this link Heavy-handed Hunt won’t back down over docs’ contract
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On 23rd March the junior doctors announced they are to stage their first all-out strike without emergency cover in a major escalation in their dispute over dangerous new contracts.
See Morning Star report Junior doctors take first all-out strike
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On the Wednesday junior doctors and their supporters were out in force. Lots of friendly momentum people with banners and placards.
Junior Doctors’ picket line
As always the mood was very positive (helped by good weather, and free SoldariTea and Coffee brought by Greens, and free biscuits brought by comrades in the SWP), the public very supportive, and lots of cars were beeping their horns in support.
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