The ballot, which closed yesterday (6 October), saw 97% (or 3,950) of resident doctors voting for strike action on a turnout of 65%, providing them with a mandate for industrial action alongside the linked dispute over eroded pay.
The BMA says that while no strikes are currently planned, the talks with Government currently ongoing will now have to produce a solution on jobs, as well as the 21% pay erosion resident doctors have endured since 2008 to avoid future action.
Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA's resident doctors committee, said: ‘Doctors have spoken clearly: they won't accept that they face a career of insecurity at a time when the demand for doctors is huge. Yet successive governments have been unable to embrace the changes both doctors and patients are crying out for.'
He added: ‘By putting these two disputes – pay and jobs – together, we are now giving Government a chance to create a plan that supports and develops the workforce of the next generation. Patients need doctors to have jobs. Doctors need to know they will have jobs. And they need to know they will be paid what they're worth.
‘We do not want to have to strike, but we will if we are left with no choice. The Government has the power to end both of these disputes now: it must use this opportunity to make the changes that are desperately needed.'
In response, minister of state for health, Stephen Kinnock, said: ‘We are creating 1,000 additional training places, taking steps to prioritise UK medical graduates and conducting a review of postgraduate training to make sure the system works for doctors. The result is that current first-year doctors will emerge from their foundation training into a very different professional landscape from that which exists today.
‘Striking over something the government is engaging with the BMA on would be both needless and counterproductive. It risks setting back the progress we are already making on rebuilding the NHS and improving the training experience for resident doctors.
‘I would urge the BMA and their new leadership to continue to work with the government, rather than opting for more damaging strikes, which will harm patients, doctors themselves and the NHS as a whole.'
