Junior doctors will go on strike for 48 hours

Starting tomorrow, junior doctors will go on strike for 48 hours, after talks between their union and their hospital employers broke down last week. The Resident Doctors' Association says it wants a renewed collective employment agreement after the last one expired nearly a year ago. It says doctors have been forced to take industrial action to keep their existing terms and conditions, which would be changed under the current district health board proposal. Almost three-thousand junior doctors are expected to walk off the job, which is set to affect all DHBs, excluding West Coast District Health Board.