Strike dates for March are expected to be announced by the union in the coming days.
Junior doctors have voted to strike in March and preparations for a 72-hour full walkout are now underway.
The British Medical Association (BMA) has today announced that its members will join nurses and other NHS workers in striking over deteriorating pay and working conditions.
A massive 98 per cent of votes endorsed calls for industrial action, based on a turnout of 77.49 per cent.
The unions claim the result represents a huge mandate for strike action and is the highest-ever number of junior doctors voting for strike action, and a record turnout.
Strike dates are expected to be announced by the union in the coming days and under the plans, junior doctors will walk out of both routine and emergency care.
A “junior doctor” is defined as any doctor currently in training, so this encompasses most doctors other than Consultants.
An unstoppable force.
The news comes just days after the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) announced that its members in England would withdraw all but “life and limb” care in a 48-hour strike at the start of March.
BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson thanked everyone who took part in the ballot.
In an address to junior doctors, Dr Trivedi said, ‘Within the next few days, we will be confirming the dates of a 72-hour full walkout of junior doctors in all services. It is critical that we all participate together, as a union, bound together in defence of our profession.
“Strike action is an investment in our future, our careers, our profession, and our union. A union that can win full pay restoration is a union that can win anything.’
Dr Laurenson added, “The excuses, flimsy arguments, and implicit threats will no doubt continue filtering out from Westminster, but make no mistake: this is a result the Government cannot ignore. The Government is not an immovable object, but we are an unstoppable force”
