Efforts underway to stop next doctors strike
Just one day after the British junior doctors’ strike, attempts have already begun to avert a second strike by the doctors.
This comes as hospitals are battling to re-arrange thousands of operations postponed because of the contract dispute between junior doctors and Health Secretary.
Media reports say more than 4,000 operations were postponed amid the dispute. Some 3,300 were ones scheduled on Tuesday. This means one in 10 on the day were hit by the strike - with the rest of the cancellations coming in the days before and after the action.
Tuesday’s strike was the first walkout of its kind by junior doctors over the past 40 years. 55,000 junior doctors are working in Britain, making up a third of the medical workforce. They are qualified medical practitioners who are working while studying for qualifications to take more senior roles.
The strike was called over a new type of contract which the government says will improve healthcare at night and at weekends but the doctors say it would drastically reduce their pay.
The strike was held despite calls by the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt who described the action as "completely unnecessary". Jeremy Hunt thanked those that had ignored advice from the British Medical Association (BMA) and gone to work.
Earlier, British Prime Minister David Cameron appealed to junior doctors to call off what he said was an unnecessary strike which would cause "real difficulties" to the NHS. The Conservative government says the reforms are needed to help create a "seven days a week" NHS where the quality of care is as high at the weekends as on weekdays.
The next proposed strike is a 48-hour one beginning on 26 January.
Now officials from Acas are set to contact both sides later to get them back round the table. But government sources said they were still prepared to impose the contract if the deadlock could not be broken.
Meanwhile, the BMA said it was open to getting talks started.
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