Steve Barclay, the health and social care secretary, said junior doctors in England must “move significantly” from their current wage demand before the government re-enters talks, as doctors begin their third period of industrial strike action since March.
Barclay called the doctors’ 72-hour strike, starting at 7 a.m. Wednesday, “extremely disappointing,” and said it “will jeopardize patient safety and our efforts to reduce waiting lists.”
The British Medical Association has rejected the government’s offer of a 5 per cent wage increase as “in no way credible” as it seeks a settlement to address what it describes as 15 years of wage erosion.
Barkley called it a “fair and reasonable opening offer”, and said discussions were under way on “both pay and non-pay issues until (the junior doctors) choose to end talks by announcing new strike dates”.
He added that if the Bahrain Monetary Union calls off these “destructive and disruptive strikes and shows a willingness to move significantly from its position, we can resume secret talks and find a way forward, as we have done with other unions.”
In the meantime, people should attend appointments unless told otherwise by the NHS, “continue to call 999 in the event of a life-threatening emergency and use NHS 111’s online services for non-urgent health needs,” he said.
An estimated more than 500,000 operations and appointments have been canceled since NHS workers, including nurses and paramedics, began the industrial strike last December.
The NHS Staff Council, which represents 14 health unions, agreed in May to a pay offer that would give staff a uniform raise of around 9 per cent over two years. However, the majority of the members of the Royal College of Nursing rejected it, with the nurses now voting to authorize a second six-month strike.
Consultants and radiology technicians are doing their own balloting as they seek the green light to strike.
Health leaders said staff used to manage disruption on strike days, but warned of the long-term consequences for health services and patients.
Rory Deaton, director of the NHS Acute Network, said local services were doing all they could to “prioritize those most in need of clinics and provide patients with safe services”.
However, he warned that “every wave of strikes reduces the resilience of the NHS, affecting staff, internal relations and their ability to deliver on government commitments to reduce voluntary backlog”.
He noted that securing consulting cover for absent junior doctors was a “challenge”, as local negotiations over overtime payments continued.
Separately, in an open letter to NHS staff, Barclay said he would work with the NHS Staff Council to oversee the implementation of the “non-payment” elements of the wage agreement.
He invited those involved in the NHS Pay Review Body process, including health unions, NHS England and the devolved departments, to share their views on areas such as “the timing of the pay round, the process for appointments for members, the input of the NHS Staff Council and the data and evidence being fed into it”, he said.
Without fundamental change, the union’s general secretary, Christina Macnea, said, “the government risks sleepwalking into a disastrous repeat of the shameful way ministers handled the last two salary rounds”.
Junior doctors are set to strike in Scotland between July 12-15 after BMA members rejected Holyrood’s offer of an aggregate increase of 14.5 per cent over two years, along with talks about changing the system of pay reviews.