Junior doctors in England open door to ending NHS strikes

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Junior doctors in England have said they are willing to accept a 35 per cent pay rise over “a number of years”, opening the door to ending months of strike action as they began the longest walkout in NHS history.

Vivek Trivedi, co-chair of the British Medical Association’s junior doctors committee, said on Wednesday that the union was “not asking for any uplift or pay restoration to happen overnight”.

“We’re not even saying it has to happen in one year,” he told the BBC. “We are very happy to look over deals that would span a number of years. But what we need to do is to start a way towards that and not further that pay erosion.”

Trivedi’s comments came as junior doctors started an unprecedented six-day walkout in a significant escalation of their battle for higher pay.

The strike — which will end at 7am on January 9 — is the longest to hit the health service since it was founded in 1948, and follows a three-day stoppage in December.

Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth declared a critical incident on Wednesday after reporting that its accident and emergency department was “full”.

Meanwhile, Bolton NHS Foundation Trust said patients were facing waits of up to 11 hours in its emergency department, and Airedale Hospital in West Yorkshire said its A&E was “exceptionally busy”.

Senior health service leaders this week warned about the impact of the strike on routine care, as consultants are asked to step in for their junior colleagues, who make up about half of the workforce.

The wave of industrial action by staff that began in December 2022 has compounded pressures on the NHS, with roughly 1.2mn operations and appointments cancelled since it began.

After five weeks of talks late last year, the BMA rejected the government’s offer of a 3 per cent pay increase, on top of a 9 per cent rise already offered, saying the proposal was not “credible” and did not address 15 years of pay erosion.

“That 3 per cent pay uplift would still have amounted to pay cuts for many doctors this year,” Trivedi said on Wednesday, adding there was “no law that prevents [ministers] from speaking to us while strike action is happening”.

Health secretary Victoria Atkins has said that if the strikes are called off, the government would immediately look to restart talks.

Atkins on Wednesday said: “January is typically the busiest time of the year for the NHS and these strikes will have a serious impact on patients across the country.

“I urge the BMA junior doctors committee to call off their strikes and come back to the negotiating table so we can find a fair and reasonable solution to end the strikes once and for all.”

The BMA in November agreed to support a pay offer by the government to senior consultants, which included a 4.95 per cent “investment in pay” for the 2023-24 financial year, adding to the 6 per cent already offered.

Senior consultants have said they will not strike while considering the deal, with the result of a union vote on the offer expected this month.