Jim Wells, a DUP MLA and deputy chair of the Stormont health committee has said that the doctors in the UK have ‘gone too far’ by voting to support an industrial action to protest proposed changes to their pension plans.

Wells said that doctors are paid well and pointed out that people generally supports them but the decision to strike will not be supported by the people of Northern Ireland. The British Medical Association said that the decision to take industrial action, which is the first in almost 40 years, was not taken lightly. A majority of doctors had voted in favor of action in a BMA conducted poll over pension changes.

The doctors will stop regular medical care and only cater to the emergency cases over a dispute over changes to their pension plans proposed by the government. The doctors in the UK are warning of an industrial action to protest after they voted overwhelmingly in May 2011 against changes proposed by the government to their pension plans. The doctors have now ruled out a strike but said that they would only treat the most seriously ill patients over a given 24-hour period.

Hospitals and GP surgeries across Northern Ireland will be affected even as the doctors have assured that patient safety will not be compromised during the protest.