Junior doctors in England have voted overwhelmingly to continue strikes over a further six months.
Following on from the longest strike in NHS history in January, which lasted six full days, 98% of junior doctors who voted were in favour of further industrial action.
The new mandate for strikes lasts from 3 April until 19 September.
Over 34,000 junior doctors voted in the re-ballot, which closed at midday today, with the vast majority voting yes a year since they began strike action.
Junior doctors committee co-chairs Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said: “It has now been a year since we began strike action. That is a year of strikes too many. The Government believed it could ignore, delay, and offer excuses long enough that we would simply give up. That attitude has now led to the NHS wasting £3bn covering the strikes.
“This is more than double the cost of settling our whole claim. And as we see in the results of today’s ballot, delaying tactics will not work: doctors are still determined to see their pay cuts reversed, and they are willing to keep striking another six months to achieve that.
“No doctor wants to be on strike for a second longer than they have to. But it took us 15 years of declining pay to get here. Today’s re-ballot shows that doctors understand that reversing this means being in the struggle for the long haul. We ask the Health Secretary to come forward as soon as possible with a new offer – and make sure not a single further strike day need be called.”
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