Doctors across Bolton are set to strike again next month in a dispute over pay.

Junior doctors who are members of the British Medical Association (BMA) will walk out for 72 hours from 7am on June 14 in their long-running dispute over pay after the government failed to make a “credible offer” on pay, it was announced.

Kev Allsop, Secretary of Bolton Trades Council, said picket lines will be at the top of Plodder Lane.

He said: “Junior doctors will be striking next month, and they are expecting a good turn out as well as they did last time.

“The doctors will be on shifts with them all leaving work at 7am on June 14 and there will be other trade unionists to meet them as they leave work, and they will go up to the top of Plodder Lane and they will have a demonstration and a picket line there.

“This is in response to how far their pay has depreciated since 2008, the current offer from the government is five per cent and figures show that one in seven junior doctors have left over the last five years.”

Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairs of the BMA Junior Doctors Committee, said: “Since April’s strikes we have had three weeks of negotiations with the Government, seeking a deal that fully restores pay for junior doctors after the more than 26 per cent drop they have suffered over the last 15 years.

“We entered these talks in good faith, hoping that after months of refusal by ministers to meet with us, we would finally see a real offer on the table that would avoid the need for more industrial action and stop the haemorrhaging of junior doctors from the NHS.

“In that time we have received an offer which is in no way credible or even reasonable for where we are in the negotiating process.

“We made clear from the very start that talks required a recognition of the scale of our pay erosion.

“No such recognition has been forthcoming.

“We made proposals showing our willingness to be creative and work with the Government on how the reversal of our pay erosion could be achieved.

“In the end, however, the Government would simply not accept the fundamental reality of the pay cuts junior doctors have faced.

“This was made clear when they finally made their pay offer of five per cent.

“Not only is that nowhere near addressing pay erosion over the last 15 years, it would not even have matched inflation this year.”

A Government spokesperson said: “It is both surprising and deeply disappointing that the BMA Junior Doctors Committee has declared further strike action while constructive talks were ongoing. These will be hugely disruptive for patients and put pressure on other NHS staff.

“We made a fair and reasonable opening offer, and were in active discussions about both pay and non-pay issues.

“Unfortunately, it seems the BMA is unwilling to move meaningfully away from their unaffordable headline demands on pay.

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