HUMZA Yousaf has warned that junior doctor’s strike will lead to “major disruption and result in the significant cancellation of treatment, surgery and care the NHS is able to provide.”
Speaking after a meeting of the Scottish Government’s Resilience Room (SGoRR), the First Minister said he had to be “upfront” with the public.
Junior doctors are due to walk out between July 12 and 15 after the BMA rejected a 14.5% pay increase over two years.
READ MORE: NHS strike: Scotland junior doctors reject pay offer
Dr Chris Smith, from the BMA, said taking strike action was an “absolute last resort” and those walking out were “standing up for the future of the NHS”.
He said the industrial action would be called off if they received an improved offer that "could credibly be put to members".
The BMA argues that inflation - based on the RPI measure - means that junior doctors are now earning 28.5% less in real terms than they were in 2008.
The results of the consultative vote saw 71.1 per cent vote to reject the offer. The turnout was 66.3%.
EXPLAINER: Why are junior doctors in Scotland going on strike
After the meeting, Mr Yousaf said: “While pay negotiations are continuing, the Scottish Government Resilience Room was activated for a meeting this morning to discuss the significant impact a junior doctors’ strike will have on patients and to explore what mitigations can be put in place.
“I was given an update on the negotiations with the British Medical Association and on the work being done by NHS Scotland to limit the significant impact on patients as far as possible.
“Any cancelled appointments will be rearranged at the earliest opportunity.
“However, we have to be upfront with the public, a junior doctors’ strike would cause major disruption and result in the significant cancellation of treatment, surgery and care the NHS is able to provide.
“I know junior doctors make an extremely important contribution to NHS Scotland – which is why we have offered the best pay deal ever offered to junior doctors in the history of devolution, it is a fair and progressive rise which will mean a cumulative pay increase of 14.5% over two years, the best offer, by quite some distance, on the table in the UK."
READ MORE: SNP MP admits Yousaf's independence plan will 'probably not' work
“We have been clear to the BMA that we are willing to match the pay uplift we have given to nurses, midwives, and other Agenda for Change staff, for junior doctors.
“I want to stress again that this is the biggest investment in junior doctor pay for the last 20 years and a step forward to modernising pay bargaining, restoring confidence among junior doctors and ensuring their contribution to our healthcare system is appropriately recognised.”
Responding to the First Minister's comments, Dr Smith, who chairs BMA Scotland’s Junior Doctor Committee, said: “Junior doctors in Scotland have consistently and strongly made clear that that the pay offers made so far by the Scottish Government are not yet sufficient to demonstrate a commitment to reverse the years of pay erosion we have suffered, which has seen pay reduced by 28.5% since 2008. No-one can seriously argue a junior doctor today is worth that much less than a counterpart 15 years ago. Indeed, our members rejected the Scottish Government’s latest offer decisively.
“Unless we act now and invest in the future of the workforce, we will go on losing doctors to places they are valued properly, compromising the care we can provide to the people of Scotland now and in the future.
"It is on that basis we have reluctantly been pushed to announce strike dates for later this month – and in doing so we gave extra time for health boards and the Scottish Government to prepare.
"It is good to see this time being used effectively – and the seriousness with which planning is being taken shows just how crucial a role junior doctors play.
"Given the level of disruption we accept a strike will cause, it is crucial that the active negotiations we are still engaging in with the Scottish Government produce the improved offer that we know is needed.”
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