A resounding majority of junior doctors decide to extend their strike for an additional six months

Following the longest strike in the history of the National Health Service (NHS) that took place in January and lasted for six full days, 98 percent of junior physicians who voted were in favor of another round of industrial action. From the 3rd of April to the 19th of September, the new mandate for strikes will be in effect, and the ballot also approved the use of action that is not necessarily strikes. There were over 34,000 junior physicians who participated in the re-ballot, which ended at noon today. The vast majority of junior doctors voted yes, marking the year since they first began their strike action.

Dr. Robert Laurenson and Dr. Vivek Trivedi, who are also co-chairs of the Junior Doctors Committee, made the following statement: “It has now been a year since we began strike action.” There have been far too many strikes in that year. The government was under the impression that it could ignore, postpone, and use excuses for a sufficient amount of time to convince us to simply give up. The National Health Service (NHS) has now wasted three billion pounds in order to fund the strikes.

In comparison to the expense of settling our entire claim, this is more than twice as much. Furthermore, as we can see from the outcomes of today’s election, delaying strategies will not be successful: medical professionals are still adamant about having their pay cutbacks reversed, and they are willing to continue their strike for another six months in order to accomplish this goal.

Nobody wants to be on strike for even a fraction of a second longer than they absolutely have to be. But we didn’t get here until after fifteen years of steadily decreasing salary. It is clear from today’s re-ballot that medical professionals are aware that reversing this would need them to remain in the fight for an extended period of time. We are requesting that the Secretary of Health make a new offer as soon as possible, and that he or she ensure that there is no need to call any additional strike days.