Junior doctors in England offer to axe strikes if ministers make ‘credible’ pay offer

Junior doctors in England have said they will call off a four-day strike next week if the government makes a “credible offer” on pay, in a move that would avert the longest stoppage to hit the NHS since December last year.

Health leaders fear that the unprecedented walkout by members of the British Medical Association will be the most challenging yet because it is due to begin directly after the Easter bank holiday, when pent-up demand is released and many consultants are away.

Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairs of the BMA junior doctors’ committee, on Thursday urged health secretary Steve Barclay to begin fresh talks on pay, after a round of negotiations failed last month.

“If [Barclay] puts a credible offer on the table that shows he is serious about addressing doctors losing more than 26 per cent of their pay in real terms and which we believe can form the basis of negotiation, we will suspend next week’s action,” they said.

Any offer would be a starting point “but until [Barclay] . . . agrees to meet with us, we cannot consider stopping the strike action and starting negotiations”, they said, adding that “the ball [was] now very much in the secretary of state’s court”.

The Department of Health and Social Care said the BMA’s demand for a 35 per cent increase was “unreasonable and unaffordable” and that the union should present “a realistic approach so we can find a way forward”.

It added that the 96-hour strike would “risk patient safety and cause further disruption and postponed treatments”.

Separately, a top NHS official warned of an “even more challenging” week for the health service after official data published on Thursday laid bare the pressures it is facing.

Figures from NHS England showed that, in the week to April 2, there were a total of 7,556 patients in hospital with Covid-19 and hundreds with norovirus and flu, while the non-emergency 111 service received more than 440,000 calls.

Meanwhile, because of difficulties discharging patients, more than 13,000 beds were occupied by people who no longer needed them every day last week and more than 19 out of 20 adult beds were full.

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, warned that although staff continued to face “extraordinary pressure”, next week would be “even more challenging . . . with the pressures caused by a bank holiday weekend” and the strike.

He said the walkout would leave hospitals “without up to half of the medical workforce”, adding that people should call 999 only in the event of “life-threatening emergencies”.