Keir Starmer gives resident doctors 48 hours to call off strike or lose training offer | Doctors
Keir Starmer has threatened to withdraw offers of thousands of extra NHS training posts unless junior doctors call off a six-day strike after Easter.
The Prime Minister has given doctors’ union the British Medical Association 48 hours to abandon plans for industrial action or the government will take the current offer off the table.
Last week, the BMA junior doctors’ committee rejected a proposal that would have given doctors a pay rise of up to 7.1% this year without putting it to a vote of members.
Don’t write TimesStarmer described the BMA’s rejection of the deal as “reckless” and said it “helps no one”.
He called on the BMA to allow its members to vote on whether to accept the deal.
He wrote: “Last week, the BMA junior doctors’ committee rejected a historic deal. They now have 48 hours to reconsider. For the sake of patients, the NHS and the doctors they represent, they must do so.”
The deal meant an above-inflation pay rise, reforms to pay progression, reimbursement for the cost of Royal College examinations and an extra 4,500 specialist training places over three years.
The Prime Minister said that a thousand of these jobs will be opened for applications this month, but “if this agreement is not put to a vote on Thursday, it will be lost.”
He added: “These measures were not chosen at random, they were not imposed from above.
“They are the result of months of collaboration with the BMA, who were constructively involved throughout. We listened to each other at every stage and were conscious, above all, that we shared the same fundamental objectives.
“So pulling out of this agreement is the wrong decision. It’s a reckless decision. And doing so without even giving junior doctors a chance to vote makes the situation worse.”
“Because the truth is: Rejecting this deal does no one any good.”
The union, which will strike from April 7 to April 13, is demanding that wages be brought back to 2008 levels, equivalent to a 26% increase.
Chairman of the BMA’s UK resident doctors committee, Dr. Jack Fletcher told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We have been keen and talking constructively for the last two months and the government has changed the crosshairs of the pay offer at the last minute.
“I’m very happy and I want to sit down once again and talk constructively. We’ve made it clear to the government what it essentially needs to do to get back to where we were before the goalposts shifted like this.”
“Threatening to take away doctors’ jobs and essentially prevent doctors from caring for patients is not a realistic or credible way to end this dispute; it will end in a negotiating room.
“I’m happy to sit down with the government at any point and reach an agreement, but I don’t think it’s done by writing in the newspapers and making unilateral threats. I think it’s done constructively in a negotiating room.”
Regarding the decision not to present the agreement to members, he said: “We discussed this issue with our committee elected to represent our members. Their representatives considered this offer. We think it does not go far enough on the salary issue, so we decided not to present it to our members.”
