FURTHER disruption to health services will be experienced in Fermanagh this week, due to the latest strike action being taken by junior doctors.
This will run to 7am on Saturday. This follows two 48-hour walkouts last month from May 22-24.
Patients are advised to expect widespread disruption to normal services. Health and Social Care Trust websites will provide more information later this week on affected service areas.
When the ballot for this industrial action was launched, junior doctors, like the rest of Northern Ireland’s health service staff, had received no pay award for 2023/24.
However, a new backdated 2023-24 pay award for junior doctors will be paid this month, with its terms in line with the recommendations of the national pay review body, the Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body.
This pay award involves an average pay increase of 9.07 per cent for junior doctors in Northern Ireland, with those in their first year receiving a 10.68 per cent uplift.
However, the Northern Ireland Junior Doctors’ Committee (NIJDC) chair Dr Fiona Griffin said doctors had been left with “no choice”, but to continue their industrial action.
After a meeting with health officials in April, the NIJDC was “very disappointed” that there had been no progress on pay “including a commitment to work towards full pay restoration”.
“We must act on behalf of our members who voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking strike action for full pay restoration,” Dr Griffin said.
Dr Griffin said the government “must act now and prioritise staff pay” if the health service is to survive and retain doctors.
The British Medical Association has said previously that junior doctors’ salaries in Northern Ireland had fallen by 30 per cent over the past 15 years.
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