| Junior doctors will stage a full walkout later next month in response to Government plans to impose a new contract from August. The BMA has confirmed that 20 hours of industrial action on 26 April, which was scheduled to see emergency-only care provision, will now see a total withdrawal of junior doctor services. BMA council chair Mark Porter said that ministers’ refusal to back down from imposition and listen to the deeply held concerns with the planned new contract meant that escalation of action had become unavoidable. He said: ‘On 26 and 27 April, there will be a full withdrawal of labour between 8am and 5pm. The previously agreed 48-hour period of action from 6 to 8 April, with junior doctors providing emergency care only, will also be going ahead as planned. ‘There is not a single doctor in this country who wanted or expected to reach this point. We have been left with no alternative but to escalate the action, in order that the legitimate grievances expressed by thousands of junior doctors are heard.’ A previous ballot of junior doctors saw 98 per cent vote in favour of industrial action including full withdrawals of service. 'Avoid disruption' BMA junior doctor committee chair Johann Malawana (pictured) said that he deeply regretted the impact that next month’s action would cause to patients, and urged the Government to act to avoid disruption. He said: ‘No junior doctor wants to take this action but the Government has left us with no choice. In refusing to lift imposition and listen to junior doctors’ outstanding concerns, the Government will bear direct responsibility for the first full walkout of doctors in this country. ‘We deeply regret the disruption to patients and our message to patients is clear; this action is wholly avoidable but the Government must choose talks over imposition. ‘We want to end this dispute through talks but the Government is making this impossible. 'It is flatly refusing to engage with junior doctors, has done nothing to halt industrial action and is wilfully ignoring the mounting chorus of concerns with its plans to impose coming from doctors, patients and senior NHS managers. 'Faced with this reality what else can junior doctors do? ‘For the sake of patients, doctors and the future of the NHS, the Government must put politics to one side, get back around the table and end this dispute through talks.’ |