Junior doctors brand government ‘irrational’ – as ministers say ‘door is open’ for talks to end strikes

The government has been branded “an irrational partner” by a junior doctors’ union, who say ministers’ refusals to negotiate while strikes are ongoing are “madness”.

The trainee medics began three days of industrial action on Wednesday after negotiations between the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Department of Health broke down earlier this month.

Reports suggested an additional pay rise of around 3% – on top of the 8.8% recommended by the independent pay review body in April – was put on the table by the government.

But the BMA said that would amount to real-term pay cuts for its members following years of below-inflation pay rises, with only a rise of 35% bringing pay back to 2008 levels.

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A final offer is not understood to have been made by Health Secretary Victoria Atkins before the BMA’s deadline, leading to the union announcing fresh strike dates.

But the government’s position is it will not resume talks when industrial action has been called.

Co-chair of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, Dr Robert Laurenson, told Sky News from a picket line in London: “For the government to have an offer, not negotiate, not provide that offer, let the strikes go on is completely reckless – it’s actually madness and it’s the behaviour of an irrational partner.

“The government have the power to sort this out by giving us something sensible to put to our members, and until they do that, we have nothing to put to our members.”

Junior doctors, who are qualified but are undertaking further training after medical school, make up nearly half of all doctors in the English NHS system.

Health charities and organisations issued a plea to them to call off the industrial action over fears patients could be left “stranded” in hospital over Christmas as they wait to be discharged.

The groups, including Age UK and the NHS Confederation, also said it would be “extremely difficult to ensure safe and effective care during this period for all patients that need it”.

This latest round of strikes is impacting services across the country, with Cheltenham A&E among those closing during the action.

But the NHS has said emergency and urgent care will be prioritised during the strikes, with routine care the most affected.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said the NHS “should be there for all of us when we need it”, and she was worried about the more than one million appointments that have been cancelled during this year’s strike action.

She added: “As I’ve said throughout all my negotiations and discussions with the medical profession, I want us to reach fair and reasonable settlements, and I’ve managed to do that with consultants and with specialised doctors.

“I want to do the same with junior doctors.

“But them calling a strike and walking out of negotiations is not the way to secure that.”

However, Dr Laurenson warned the NHS would continue to face winter crises until it could retain doctors, many of whom are leaving for better-paid jobs abroad, and the blame lies squarely with the government, according to the BMA.

“We’ve been in dispute now for 14 months and we deliberately avoided last winter and started our action in March, and that’s because we thought we’d be able to get round the table with the government and explain the issues thoroughly,” he said.

“But it took them six months to come to the table in May, and after May it took them another six months, so all of the delays have been caused by the government and they’ve pushed us to the dead of the winter.”

He added: “The government is close, the Secretary of State has been more understanding, they just need to make that one last step to get the deal across the table, across the line, but they need to make that step. If they don’t then we’ll have to keep going into 2024 and beyond.”

Further strikes are planned for January, with junior doctors due to walk out for six consecutive days – the longest action ever taken by NHS staff.

Junior doctors in Wales are planning a 72-hour strike from 15 January, while junior doctors in Northern Ireland are being balloted for potential strike action.

Staff in Scotland have already come to an agreement with the Scottish government.