Junior doctors' strikes: The latest dates in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, what they want and what the NHS says
In Wales and England, junior doctors are taking action again. While in Northern Ireland, strikes are planned for March.
Wednesday 21 February 2024 07:16, UK
Junior doctors are striking again this week over pay.
In Wales, a new three-day walkout has begun. The strikes there follow the longest in the history of the NHS in England last month.
The tenth round of junior doctor strike action in England will also take place later in February.
Welsh members of the British Medical Association (BMA) have already taken to the picket lines this year, walking out between 15 and 18 January, having rejected pay offers from the government.
Health service executives have said this year's strikes could mean "one of the most difficult starts to the year the NHS has ever faced".
But Dr Oba Babs-Osibodu and Dr Peter Fahey, co-chairs of BMA Cymru Wales' junior doctors committee, said: "No doctor wants to strike, but whilst those in power fail to grasp the seriousness of the situation and the strength of feeling among our members we feel we have been left with no choice."
Here Sky News looks at why the strikes are happening, the dates of the latest walkouts and what both sides have said about them.
Who is striking?
There are separate ongoing disputes in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Under the NHS system, a junior doctor is any medical school graduate with between one and nine years of experience.
They can be either members of the BMA or the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association union.
NHS consultants took strike action in September and October and provisionally agreed to an extra 4.95% pay rise for senior doctors on top of the annual 6% increase already offered to them by the government.
But this was later rejected when put to a members' vote.
Medical students and staff who are not junior doctors are not legally allowed to join their colleagues on the picket line when scheduled to work.
But they can offer support and supplies when not on duty.
Junior doctors who work within the armed forces are also not permitted to take part.
New strike dates in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
In Wales, a three-day walkout runs from 7am on Wednesday (21 February) to 7am on Saturday (24 February). Welsh junior medics will follow this with another four-day strike between 25 March and 29 March.
Thousands of junior medics will also go on strike in England from 7am on 24 February until 11.59pm on 28 February.
Junior doctors in Northern Ireland will then walk out for 24 hours from 8am on 6 March after BMA members voted for strike action during their six-week ballot period beginning on 8 January.
Of those balloted, 97.6% voted yes to a full 24-hour walkout that will take place in hospitals across Northern Ireland.
But in Scotland, a deal was struck last year to avert further walkouts.
In July, the BMA secured a 12.4% pay rise for junior doctors in Scotland for the year 2023/2024. Combined with the 4.5% rise they secured the year before, it totals a 17.5% increase over two years.
What do junior doctors want?
Junior doctors in Wales rejected the government's last offer of a 5% pay increase in August, which they claim was the worst handed to medics across the four nations.
They say their wages have fallen by almost a third (29.6%) since the year 2008-2009.
Medics also point out that the Welsh government initially declared it would commit to the principle of pay restoration in April 2023.
The government gave junior doctors in England an 8.8% pay rise last summer, with an extra 3% offered during the last round of negotiations towards the end of the year.
The BMA said it rejected the 3% offer because it does not make up for a real-term pay cut of nearly a quarter for junior doctors since 2008.
Instead, it is calling for:
• Full pay "restoration" to reverse real-term cuts in pay since 2008/9;
• A new pay mechanism to prevent any future pay decreases against inflation and the cost of living;
• A reformed Doctors' and Dentists' Review Body for independent and fair pay recommendations for staff to "safeguard recruitment and retention of junior doctors".
The BMA claims junior doctors in England were subjected to a 26.1% real terms pay cut between 2008 and 2022.
First-year doctors on 2016 contracts get paid £32,398 a year - while those on the previous 2002 contract earned £28,274, according to the BMA website.
And with 6.4 million patients on the waiting list for treatment, the union says staff are suffering burnout and leaving the country or the profession altogether.
It says the strikes are designed to "save the NHS" from conditions that put patient care at risk.
Why are these strikes significant?
In Wales, this is the first year junior medics have walked out since 2012.
In England, repeated industrial action meant there were only four weekdays unaffected by strikes or the Christmas holidays in a three-week period at the turn of the year.
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust decided to close Cheltenham A&E completely during the strikes.
Figures released in September showed that rescheduled appointments due to strike actions by both junior doctors and consultants have now surpassed one million.
NHS England's national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said strikes not only affect the health service when staff walk out - but also for "weeks after… as we recover services and deal with additional demand".
He described them as having a "significant impact on almost all routine care", with almost half of the medical workforce on picket lines when staff walk out in England.
Urgent care is covered by non-striking, more senior staff, but routine appointments and operations often have to be rescheduled.
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What has the NHS said?
Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, said hospital trusts are "worried" by the level of industrial action.
"It does mean that there will be a huge amount of concern around managing patient safety and quality during this period because urgent care will be the priority, but a lot of planned care will have to be rescheduled for later in the year," he said.
Professor Sir Stephen added ahead of the last strike in England: "Six consecutive days of industrial action comes at one of our busiest periods - the action will not only have an enormous impact on planned care, but comes on top of a host of seasonal pressures such as COVID, flu, and staff absences due to sickness - all of which is impacting on how patients flow through hospitals.
"Our colleagues across the health service are doing their very best for patients every day, with extensive preparations in place, but there's no doubt they are starting 2024 on the back foot."
He warned people to only use hospital services in emergencies - but said people must still call 999 or attend A&E if they are in genuine need.
What has the government said?
During the December strikes, Health and Social Care Secretary Victoria Atkins said she was prepared to return to the negotiating table if they were called off.
The prime minister's spokesperson added: "As the health and care secretary made clear, we are willing to have further discussions, but obviously the first thing to do is to stop striking."
He also said that the strikes are impacting the NHS's ability to clear the waiting list backlog.
The government wants a "fair resolution… for the taxpayer and hard-working doctors and health workers", he said, adding: "It's still very much in their gift to call off the strike action."
Rishi Sunak told parliament last year the junior doctors' strikes were "disappointing".
He said: "We have now reached a resolution with every other part of the public sector and every other part of the NHS.
"And I'd also say that it was the junior doctors who received the biggest increase in their pay through the independent public standing pay review process of around a 10% increase for a typical junior doctor."