Striking junior doctors are just not ready to be reasonable, says health minister
As militant medics prepare to walk out for another FIVE days...
A NEW wave of strike action by junior doctors shows they are not ‘ready to be reasonable’, Victoria Atkins insisted yesterday.
The Health Secretary spoke out after medics announced plans to bring hospitals to a standstill with another five-day stoppage this month.
They will walk off the job from February 24 in a fresh drive to force the Government to cave into their demands for a 35 per cent pay rise.
Ms Atkins said: ‘I want to find a reasonable solution that ends strike action. This action called by the British Medical Association junior doctors committee does not signal that they are ready to be reasonable.
‘We already provided them with a pay increase of up to 10.3 per cent and were prepared to go further. We urged them to put an offer to their members, but they refused. We are also open to further discussions on improving doctors’ and the wider workforce’s working lives.’
BMA bosses say the Government rejected their ‘gesture of goodwill’ by failing to meet a deadline to ‘put an improved offer on the table’.
More than a million appointments and operations have been cancelled amid the series of NHS strikes that kicked off in 2022.
The strikes will start at 7am on February 24 and run until just before midnight on February 28.
Junior doctors committee cochairmen Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said the strikes could have been averted had the Government agreed to come to the negotiating table.
‘Even yesterday we were willing to delay further strike action in exchange for a short extension of our current strike mandate,’ they said. ‘Had the Health Secretary agreed to this, an act of good faith on both sides, talks could have gone ahead without more strikes. Sadly, the Government declined.
‘The glacial speed of progress with the Government is frustrating and incomprehensible.’
They added that despite Ms Atkins’ statements during the last round of strike action that she would meet junior doctors ‘in 20 minutes’ when no strikes were planned, it was more than 20 days before they were offered a meeting.
But they said the union was willing to cancel the strikes if a credible pay offer was made.
Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, said the strikes were ‘another blow’. He added: ‘Seventy days of industrial action across the NHS in England since December 2022, costing the NHS around £3 billion and delaying more than 1.4 million routine appointments and procedures, have added to pressure throughout the NHS.
‘ Patients having to wait even longer for the care they need is a huge concern.’
Sir Julian urged ministers and unions to ‘get back to serious talks’ to resolve the dispute.
‘We need to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Trust leaders want to be able to put all of their energy into giving patients firstclass care and cutting waiting lists rather than having to spend too much time planning for and coping with disruptive strikes.’
The BMA’s fresh wave of strike action comes just a month after a walkout by junior medics. Thousands took to picket lines for a record- breaking six days that caused huge disruption.
Previous walkouts have led to the cancellation of elective care, but emergency services such as A&Es have remained open.
‘Improved offer on the table’