A GREAT Western Hospital junior doctor says she is “cautiously optimistic” over the announcement that the British Medical Association and the health secretary have agreed a deal which will end the contract dispute.

Jeremy Hunt and the BMA welcomed a compromise deal to end the long-running dispute over the former contract which sparked eight days of strike action in just four months.

Dr Charis Banks has been a junior doctor at the GWH for four years. She said the news of a revised contract had reinvigorated medics who had picketed to get their voices heard.

“We are very encouraged that a deal has been reached and that negotiations have moved forward on both sides,” she said.

I trust the BMA completely and I trust that they have made the right decisions for us so I am cautiously optimistic. I will reserve my opinions for when I see the exact details of the new contract though.”

The deal will have to go back to ballot with 45,000 junior doctors who are members of the BMA voting on whether to proceed with the new contract.

The junior doctor’s protest began when the Department of Health announced a contract which could cut junior doctors pay by 40 percent and make them work much longer hours. Extra evening and Saturday pay will be lost as a result.

The contract, would have seen junior doctors normal working week changed to include Saturday and stretch until 10pm every night except Saturday and Sunday.