The health secretary, Victoria Atkins, has spoken of her “respect” for striking junior doctors in advance of fresh pay talks, in a move that highlights a markedly different tone from her predecessor, Steve Barclay.
In an interview with the Times, Atkins said she wanted to build a “new relationship with the British Medical Association” and had found the leaders of the BMA junior doctors’ committee to be “very constructive”. Previously, Barclay had claimed that the BMA had a politically “militant stance”. He had also accused NHS staff in England of planning “politically timed” industrial action.
