Junior doctors have refused to call off a strike after a last ditch intervention by the Government. They are due to walk out for three days from Monday as part of a bitter row over pay.
Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, invited bosses from trade union the British Medical Association for pay talks, on the basis that the industrial action would be cancelled. But in a letter to Mr Barclay published today, the co-chairs of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson, rejected the offer and said the strike action would go ahead as planned.
"We remain open to entering talks with Government anytime and anywhere to bring this dispute to a swift resolution and restore the pay that junior doctors have lost," they wrote. "We would encourage you to reconsider the preconditions that are currently preventing talks from taking place.
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"As you have known for more than two weeks, our strikes will commence on Monday. And you also know, until we have a credible offer, we are not in a position to call them off.”
They dismissed Mr Barclay’s 11th-hour offer as "a feeble attempt to stall us, to kick the can down the road, to delay an actual meaningful conversation". The Health Secretary said he had proposed negotiations “on the same basis other health unions accepted”, after planned industrial action by tens of thousands of key workers was suspended when the Government agreed to discuss pay for this year.
Unions representing ambulance workers, physiotherapists, nurses and midwives have been in talks with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) since Tuesday. But the discussions have not involved BMA junior doctors, who are still due to walk out for 72 hours on Monday.
Mr Barclay tweeted on Friday night: “I’ve written to @BMA_JuniorDocs inviting them for formal pay talks on the same basis other health unions accepted, including calling off next week’s strike. Let’s have a constructive dialogue to make the NHS a better place to work and ensure we deliver the care patients need.”
BMA junior doctors noted that the Health Secretary did not attend talks on Friday. Nearly 40,000 junior doctors voted to take industrial action in the BMA ballot.
Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, said: “It is deeply disappointing that even at this late stage there is no real prospect of meaningful talks between the Government and the British Medical Association to avert the forthcoming industrial action.
"This is a setback for the NHS. The people who will suffer will be patients facing yet more disruption, and staff whose morale will take a further hit."
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