The British Medical Association (BMA) announced yesterday junior doctors will go on strike again in response to the government’s decision to enforce a new contract for doctors.

The new strikes will each last 48 hours, and are scheduled to start at 8am on Wednesday 9 March, Wednesday 6 April and Tuesday 26 April.

The announcement comes after 10 days of deliberation by the doctors’ union, which culminated in a meeting of the BMA’s junior doctors’ committee over the weekend. The committee had previously declared it was time the government “put their money where their mouth is”.

Until yesterday, it was unclear whether senior figures of the BMA – which needs to approve all strike actions – would give the go ahead for new industrial action. Senior doctors had previously hinted they feared alienating themselves from the British public. Before the last strikes, polls showed the majority of the public – 66 percent – backed the doctors on industrial action.

In the last five years, outsourcing has played an increasingly important role in the NHS. A slowing economy, coupled with an ageing population demanding ever more healthcare services, has contributed to a funding crisis which is inevitably crippling Britain’s most cherished public service.

The urgent need to increase productivity within the NHS has led NHS organisations to turn to the private sector in search of economies of scale, new technologies and increased staff productivity.

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