Consultants reveal yet more strike dates - before even doing first walkout

Consultants have announced yet more strike dates - before even going out on their first round of industrial action amid waves of NHS walkouts this year.

Consultants in England, who go on strike on Thursday and Friday, will do the same next month. The British Medical Association (BMA), the union representing consultants, announces new industrial action dates in response to the government's pay offer for public sector workers, including NHS staff members.

The BMA says the government is 'imposing another real-terms pay cut on doctors' by offering a pay award of six per cent. The union has maintained that the consultants are demanding a 35 per cent pay uplift to redress 'years of pay erosion' for more than a decade.

Consultants in England had already announced they will take action on July 20 and 21, unless the government presents them with an offer than begins to reverse the 35 per cent 'pay erosion'. But amid the announcement of only a six per cent offer, the BMA’s consultants committee is announcing further provisional strike dates of August 24 and 25.

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The strike will again be based on Christmas Day levels of cover, meaning emergency care will still be provided. Dr Vishal Sharma, BMA consultants committee chair, said: “The government has once again imposed a savage real terms pay cut on consultants.

"When inflation is running at more than 11 per cent, this is nothing short of insulting. Consultants have always been clear that industrial action is a last resort but in the face of a government intent on devaluing consultants’ expertise and their lack of regard for the impact this is having on the NHS, we have been left with no choice.

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