Strike vote set for Scots doctors as NHS England staff confirm walkouts

The British Medical Association announced its ballot would be held on March 29.

Strike vote set for Scotland’s junior doctors as NHS England staff confirm walkouts Getty Images

Junior doctors across Scotland will vote on strike action next month after colleagues in England confirmed they would walk out for three days.

The British Medical Association (BMA) announced its ballot would be held on March 29.

Junior doctors in England are to strike for three days next month in the increasingly bitter dispute over pay.

Scottish junior doctors committee chair Chris Smith said: “This is a huge day and a date that people have been asking us about on the ground all of the time.

“Join your local strike organizing group, and importantly, tell everyone why we need pay restoration.

“Pay restoration to reverse the 23.5% pay erosion we’ve had since 2008, pay restoration to retain staff and prop up our NHS, pay restoration so that the work we do is valued appropriately.”

The BMA said doctors in England had “no option” and would strike from March 13, having voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action earlier this month.

The BMA said that junior doctors have called on health secretary Steve Barclay twice in the past week to meet with them urgently, but added that no date had been set.

A meeting with Department of Health civil servants earlier this week yielded nothing in terms of meaningful progress, said the BMA, adding that the minister had refused to attend.

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