UK junior doctors vote to ballot on industrial action

The BMA will ballot its 30000 junior doctor members over industrial action unless the UK government agrees to negotiate on out of hours pay. After a heated debate at last week's junior doctors' conference, delegates voted unanimously for a ballot before the end of September.

The decision was boosted by a survey of all junior BMA members in which four out of five of the respondents—there was a 37%response rate—said that they would be willing to take some action in support of an antisocial hours supplement for working weekends and bank holidays.

Junior doctors in the United Kingdom have long campaigned for improvements in out of hours pay. Most are paid at …