NHS bosses urge Steve Barclay to accept Acas role in dispute with junior doctors

Junior doctors on the picket line outside the Northern General hospital in Sheffield. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer

NHS bosses have urged the health secretary to let the arbitration service Acas see if it can help to break the deadlock in his deepening dispute with junior doctors in England who are striking over pay.

The NHS Confederation has written to Steve Barclay and the British Medical Association (BMA), the main doctors’ union, asking them to accept the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service as an honest broker that could set up talks to end the row.