The futility of the junior doctors’ strike

This morning junior doctors in England went on strike again, stopping work for five days. The timing of this strike is highly political, as medics return to work just before election day – but it is also highly pointless: NHS leaders were quick to point this out. The election campaign is the only time when no politician can resolve the dispute over doctors’ pay. Rishi Sunak will not change his mind and give doctors the 35% pay rise they have demanded, but he couldn’t even if he wanted to, because of electoral purdah rules. Labour, on the other hand, is not in power.

Some spokespeople on the BMA’s Junior Doctors’ Committee (JDC) have suggested that Labour’s entry into government would change the course of negotiations. There is strong anti-Conservative sentiment, at least within the committee, so it might be tempting to further damage the Conservatives by disrupting the health service – at the very moment when most voters are making their decision.

But with heat warnings in place across much of England until this evening, these are disruptions that patients and staff still working could really do without. The NHS Confederation, which represents care providers, warned this week that “strikes in the middle of an election campaign, when no political party is able to end the conflict, are a bitter pill to swallow for staff who have to fill the gaps and for patients whose appointments have to be cancelled or rescheduled”. Even members of the BMA council have raised concerns that the strike is an “own goal” – indicating that there is disagreement over tactics even within the union itself. This has long been the case, with the council often viewing the junior doctors’ committee as “militant” and in danger of playing its cards, which it has done in the past.

Since Labour will – unless there is a major surprise – be in government shortly after the strike, the JDC will be looking for a way out of this protracted conflict before its own members tire of industrial action and before popular sympathy falls even further. Voters have generally blamed the government for its failure to end the strikes, and this has been Labour’s criticism too.

They have argued that they could have sat down earlier and avoided strike action – although they have not explained how they managed to do so. Recently, Wes Streeting suggested that the pay rises were a “path, not an event”, suggesting a multi-year pay deal and further talks on working conditions. This will not get anywhere near 35 per cent, but it could allow the BMA to save face and claim a victory.

But Streeting is in no mood to make doctors’ wishes the focus of his time as Health Secretary. He is far more concerned with making the NHS work for the consumer, not the producer. Even if he resolves this dispute quickly, he will soon find himself back in conflict with the BMA.