BMA ballot results on industrial action to be published next week

The BMA’s ballot of doctors on industrial action on major changes to the NHS pension scheme closes at 5pm on Tuesday 29 May 2012.

There are six separate ballots, for: general practitioners; consultant doctors; junior doctors; staff associate, specialist and specialty doctors; occupational medicine doctors; and public health and community health doctors. 

The results of the ballots have to be shared with employers and members as soon as possible after they are available from the independent scrutineers, Electoral Reform Services. They will also be posted on the BMA website and distributed to the media at the same time – most likely to be early on the morning of Wednesday 30 May 2012.

There will be a special meeting of BMA Council on Wednesday 30 May to consider the results and decide on the next steps.  Its decision will be announced as soon as possible – likely to be the afternoon of that day. We will not be commenting on the results before Council’s decision. However, BMA representatives will be available for background interviews before the results are known – on the pensions dispute, the details of the ballot, and the type of industrial action proposed.

Ballot papers were sent to 103,000 doctors across the UK from Monday 14 May. They asked two questions – whether doctors were prepared to take part in industrial action short of a strike, and whether they were prepared to take part in a strike. 

For maximum legal protection, BMA members were asked to vote yes to both questions if they wanted to take the action proposed - doctors attending their workplace and providing all urgent and emergency care, but postponing non-urgent work for one or more 24-hour periods.

If action does goes ahead, it would not be strike action as the term is normally understood by the public; doctors would be in their usual places of work, and all emergency and urgent care would be provided. Doctors would work closely with managers so that anyone whose care is affected is given as much notice as possible.