Harrogate District Hospital could face six more months of strike action by junior doctors

It’s been over a year since junior doctors began striking over pay and this week 98 per cent of British Medical Association union members backed further walkouts on a turnout of 62 per cent.

Most recently, junior doctors at the Lancaster Park Road hospital staged two separate walk-outs between December 20-23 and January 3-9.

The strikes have had a “draining impact”, according to the boss of Harrogate & District NHS Foundation Trust.

Junior doctors are qualified doctors in clinical training and they make up nearly half of the medical workforce in England.

The BMA says while workload and waiting lists are at record highs, pay has effectively been cut by more than a quarter since 2008.

The union is asking the government for a 35 per cent pay rise, but health ministers have described the demands as unreasonable.

A spokesperson for Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust said the hospital hopes a deal can be reached before future strikes take place.

They said: “Whilst we respect the decision made by BMA junior doctors to extend their mandate for industrial action, we hope that the BMA and government can have effective discussions which will lead to a solution before further strikes are undertaken.

“Should further industrial action take place we will continue to manage the disruption to ensure our patients are safe during the strike, any impact on patient care is kept to a minimum and emergency services continue to operate as normal.

“We value our staff and know that junior doctors do not want to be striking.

"We hope a breakthrough can be made soon so that we can continue to focus on delivering high quality care to all those who need it.”