Wes Streeting to offer resident doctors bigger pay rise to end dispute | NHS
Wes Streeting will offer junior doctors a bigger pay rise than other NHS staff under a new package of measures aimed at ending the long-running dispute.
The health secretary also plans to guarantee junior doctors in England that hospitals will be fined if they are not provided with good working conditions, such as rest areas and access to hot meals.
Streeting is considering a series of improvements to his previous proposals, which could persuade the British Medical Association (BMA) to scrap its almost three-year industrial action campaign.
Senior figures in the NHS with knowledge of Streeting’s thinking are increasingly optimistic that the measures he is finalizing could be enough to break the deadlock before the third anniversary of the first doctors’ strike in the current dispute on March 13, 2023.
The health secretary hopes a significantly improved pay offer across the NHS of 2.5% for 2026/27, which the government insisted last October was the most it could afford – but only for junior doctors – could finally end the dispute.
Sources with knowledge of Streeting’s recent talks with representatives of the BMA’s resident doctors’ committee say he is considering at least doubling the 2.5% rate. Medical Association He condemned the figure as “untenable” and what the Department of Health and Social Care calls an “insult” first suggested this as evidence to NHS pay review body and doctors’ and dentists’ charging body.
The search for solutions has become even more urgent since the BMA announced on Monday that junior doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, had voted overwhelmingly to continue their strike for another six months, demanding a 26% increase in pay over the next few years and more places where doctors can begin training in their chosen medical specialty.
The five-day strike by junior doctors just before Christmas was their 14th since March 2023. Their three five-day work stoppages since Labor came to power in July 2024 have cost the NHS an estimated £250 million each.
Streeting is also considering introducing a system of financial penalties for hospitals that do not do enough to improve the working lives of junior doctors. This could lead to NHS trusts being fined if they fail to allow paramedics access to rest areas and hot food during their shifts, including at night, a long-standing complaint of the BMA.
It is also drawing up plans to address another major complaint among junior doctors: that those who do extra work outside their contracted hours should be paid for it or given time off instead.
Jim Mackey, chief executive of NHS England Last year we prepared a 10-item plan for hospitals to improve the working lives of junior doctors. But both the BMA and Mackey are disappointed that some NHS trusts have been slow to make enough progress on issues such as access to rest and food, payroll errors and the management of doctors’ rotas.
Vice-chairman of the union’s resident doctors committee, Dr. In a sign that Streeting’s talks with the BMA look promising, Arjan Singh said: He told BBC Radio 4’s Today program on Tuesday He said it was unlikely they would call further strikes in the near future, despite their new legal powers, as progress had been made.
“We have no intention of going on strike. It is a negotiating tool, but we have no intention of actually using it.
“We can pull the trigger and go on strike whenever we want, but that’s not the point of the game. Hopefully without strike action, the goal is to get good wages and good conditions,” he said.
Singh added: “We were on strike 14 [or] 15 times in the last two years, that’s quite a lot. “Ideally, we can handle this without any further action.”
A new poll on Wednesday showed a majority of people oppose junior doctors striking over their demands. YouGov found that 52 per cent of people in Britain do not support strikes (compared to 53 per cent in a similar poll in December) and 38 per cent support them, a figure that remains unchanged.
YouGov asked 4,592 adults in Britain whether they supported junior doctors going on strike over pay and job insecurity. The poll was conducted following the BMA’s voting result on Tuesday.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman denied the story and said: “We will not be making any continuing comments on discussions, which have so far been constructive.”
