Question Author
/// Even with a public roll call, the vote to endorse strike action was far from a landslide. Indeed, only 16 of the 34 voting members of the BMA's Council supported the move. Another 11 opposed it, while seven were either absent, or abstained. ///
/// To this end, it should be noted that a secret BMA document leaked to the Mail earlier this week suggests that less than a third of junior doctors (31.5 per cent) support a 'time-limited full walk-out' of the sort the organisation now proposes to undertake. ///
/// The figure was obtained from a survey carried out in June. ///
/// 'On the face of this survey, the remaining 68.5 per cent of respondents would not be prepared to take part in that action,' reads the secret document, which goes on to admit that public support for junior doctors is falling while the BMA's 'member relations staff are reporting that they are not detecting the same appetite for industrial action among members [as] for previous phases of industrial action'. ///
/// Astonishingly, despite this finding, Ellen McCourt's JDC has decided not to actually ask junior doctors to vote on whether the imminent industrial action ought to go
ahead. ///