Junior doctors strike to proceed as planned

The 48-hour junior doctors' strike planned for this week is set to proceed, as the contract dispute between the government and medical sector rolls on.

Junior doctors will withdraw their labour entirely for two days on April 26th and 27th, with this being the first strike action to involve the removal of cover from emergency care areas in the history of the NHS.

The industrial action has been prompted by the ongoing dispute with the government over its plans to impose a new contract on junior doctors that has been described by the British Medical Association as unfair and unsafe.

A cross-party group of MPs drafted a potential compromise agreement yesterday (April 24th) that suggested the new contract could be restricted to a pilot scheme before introducing it across England.

However, health secretary Jeremy Hunt has rejected the plans out of hand as "opportunism" on the part of Labour, saying the phased introduction of the contract will ensure it "works as intended".

Mr Hunt's stated aim with the new contract is to eliminate discrepancies in care quality between weekdays and weekends.