Resident doctors are taking part in an industrial action in a dispute over pay. The 24-hour industrial action began at on Monday and will end at 06:59 on Tuesday. It comes after consultants and specialist doctors went on strike last week - the first time for these two groups of doctors in Northern Ireland.
Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said he remained committed to implementing this year's pay award but was currently unable to do so in the absence of an agreed budget. Dr David Farren, chairman of the BMA's Northern Ireland consultants committee, said the resident doctor strike would be a "full walk out" rather than Christmas Day cover as it was for Thursday's strike. He said consultants and specialist, associate specialist and speciality doctors will make sure that emergency and urgent care is prioritised.
Consultants and specialist doctors take strike action over pay Hospital doctors to strike in dispute over pay Specialist doctors to join strike in dispute over pay Picket line demonstrations are taking place at the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) in Belfast, Craigavon Area Hospital and Altnagelvin Hospital in Londonderry. Speaking on the picket line at the RVH on Monday, Dr Steven Montgomery, chairman of the BMA's Northern Ireland resident doctors committee, said everyone is "furious at the situation". "Our pay since 2008 has decreased by over 20%, and that's why everybody is out today.
"This DDRB (The Doctors' and Dentists' Review Body) award of 3.5% does not go far enough to restore us back to those previous 2008 levels." "We did a survey recently of penultimate and final year medical students, over 54% of our medical students here in Northern Ireland have told us that they are not planning to work here in Northern Ireland," he added. He said he believed that if things did not change, "the NHS in Northern Ireland ceases to exist". The BMA balloted its members over a four-week period after doctors' leaders rejected a recommended 3.5% pay uplift from an independent pay body.
Earlier this month it was announced that 92% of resident doctors voted yes and 79% of consultants voted for strike action. The BMA also said 90% of SAS doctors voted in favour of strike action. Both branches of practice voted in favour of industrial action in what they said was "over 18 years of pay erosion" and rejected the 3.5% pay rise.
SAS doctors are fully qualified doctors who work permanently with the healthcare team in their chosen area of medicine. Dr Helen Kerr, a resident doctor in emergency medicine at Altnagelvin Hospital, said doctors felt they had been "forced into this after years of sub-inflationary pay uplifts". She said she understands this will have a knock-on effect for many patients and said they have not come to this decision lightly.
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