James Wild MP calls for urgent action to prevent senior doctors reducing hours ahead of BMA strike
During an urgent question in the House of Commons, James Wild MP has raised an urgent question in Parliament on the looming strike action by resident doctors - formerly known as junior doctors - and risk the senior doctors may reduce their working hours due to delays in provision of pension information.
The British Medical Association (BMA) has announced a five-day strike from 25 to 30 July as part of an ongoing pay dispute and NHS trusts have warned that the walkout is expected to lead to the cancellation of thousands of appointments and significant disruption to services. James pressed the government for action to ensure senior doctors get the pension statement updates they need in order to prevent them from reducing their working hours which could further strain NHS services.
He also challenged the Minister on whether bonuses for NHS Business Services Authority executives will be ruled out given the significant delays in providing the pension information.
James Wild MP said:
"With the British Medical Association set to strike and with the Health Secretary reduced to pleading with it not to, thousands of patients are set to have appointments cancelled. Can the Minister assure the House that she will grip this issue so that senior doctors do not also reduce their hours? And will she rule out bonuses for NHS Business Services Authority executives?"
In response, the Minister for Health and Social Care, Karin Smyth MP said:
"We are working very closely to ensure that resident doctors do not go on strike. We are very clear that we cannot negotiate on pay this year, but we will work with everybody to improve conditions. Some of those conditions are shocking, and we want to work constructively with them to avoid disruptive strike action."
