Junior doctors in England have have voted in favour of strike action in a dispute over pay.
Members of the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA), voted 97% in favour of industrial action.
The HCSA said there was a 74.76% turnout, and the union will agree 'the timing and shape' of the action in coordination with other health unions. The HCSA said that 397 people out of 531 who were entitled to vote took part in the ballot.
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The number of votes cast in the ballot is at least 50% of the number of individuals who were entitled to vote. Around 45,000 junior doctors, who are members of the British Medical Association (BMA), have also been balloted over strike action – with the result due at the end of February.
HCSA president Dr Naru Narayanan said the ballot result should act as a 'wake-up call' to the Government ahead of the BMA result, and called on them to 'negotiate a way out of this crisis'. Dr Narayanan said: "The Government must see this result as a wake-up call from its current complacency.
"Junior doctors are telling us they have had enough of being taken for granted. They are telling us they will leave the country if things do not get better. This is a critical issue for our NHS.
"If the Government does not increase pay as part of a wider funding package, then the current ragged workforce will collapse and the hospital consultants of the future will vote with their feet and leave. We are teetering on the edge of a precipice. Now is the time to negotiate a way out of this crisis."
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