Health secretary refuses to negotiate with junior doctors until strikes called off
Health Secretary Victoria Atkins has refused to get back round the table with junior doctors until they call off their industrial action.
The medics, who make up nearly half of all doctors in NHS England, began their second of three strike days on Thursday over pay and conditions, with a further six walkouts planned for January.
Talks between their union, the British Medical Association (BMA), and the government collapsed earlier this month when ministers failed to put a final offer on the table before the union’s deadline – leading to strike dates being set.
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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.
And while both sides say they are willing to negotiate, the government is standing by its position of not holding talks while strikes are on the table, and the BMA will not cancel the action, branding ministers “an irrational partner”.
Speaking to Sky News, Ms Atkins said she was “very much keen to negotiate with junior doctors”, adding: “If they call off the strikes, we will get straight back around that table and continue to negotiate.
“Because, of course, there isn’t just an economic cost to these strikes. There is also a very human cost to this, and there will be people at home watching this programme who are in pain, who are in distress and whose appointments have been cancelled over these three-day periods.”
Asked if there would be extra money for junior doctors, the health secretary said “yes”, and that she wanted to “find fair and reasonable settlements with those parts of the workforce who have either taken part in industrial action or who are concerned”.
But pushed over why, if there is cash available, she won’t kick off talks immediately, Ms Atkins said: “NHS England is a little bit like an oil tanker. The moment that a strike is called, that has very very serious consequences for the whole of the system.
“So for the last week and a half, managers, medical directors, clinicians up and down the country have been devoting days and days of preparation to try to keep the system stable during these strikes and we have to have certainty from the junior doctors committee whereby they call off the strikes, then we can go into negotiation.”
She added: “I cannot flick NHS England on and off like a switch. And by the way, this is the principle we apply across the public sector. And so it is right that we treat people… when unions are having discussions with government, it’s right that we treat people the same.
“And we have always said if there are strikes happening at the moment, affecting patients, affecting the public, we will not negotiate, but the moment they call them off I will be back around that table.”
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Junior doctors brand government ‘irrational’
Co-chair of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, Dr Robert Laurenson, told Sky News on Wednesday that it was “completely reckless” for the government to have an offer they were willing to make, but refuse to do so during the strikes.
“It’s actually madness and it’s the behaviour of an irrational partner,” he said. “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.”
Elsewhere in the UK, 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.
Specialist search teams, police dogs and divers have been dispatched to find two sisters who vanished in Aberdeen three days ago.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday.
The siblings were captured crossing the bridge and turning right onto a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club.
Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Police Scotland has launched a major search and said it is carrying out “extensive inquires” in an effort to find the women.
Chief Inspector Darren Bruce said: “Local officers, led by specialist search advisors, are being assisted by resources including police dogs and our marine unit.”
Aberdeenshire Drone Services told Sky News it has offered to help in the search and is waiting to hear back from Police Scotland.
CCTV of the sisters. Pic: Police Scotland
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The sisters, from Aberdeen city centre, are described as slim with long brown hair.
Police said the Torry side of Victoria Bridge where the sisters were last seen contains many commercial and industrial units, with searches taking place in the vicinity.
The force urged businesses in and around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review CCTV footage recorded in the early hours of Tuesday in case it captured anything of significance.
Drivers with relevant dashcam footage are also urged to come forward.
CI Bruce added: “We are continuing to speak to people who know Eliza and Henrietta and we urge anyone who has seen them or who has any information regarding their whereabouts to please contact 101.”
Glasgow has been a city crying out for solutions to a devastating drugs epidemic that is ravaging people hooked on deadly narcotics.
We have spent time with vulnerable addicts in recent months and witnessed first-hand the dirty, dangerous street corners and back alleys where they would inject their £10 heroin hit, not knowing – or, in many cases, not caring – whether that would be the moment they die.
“Dying would be better than this life,” one man told me.
It was a grim insight into the daily reality of life in the capital of Europe’s drug death crisis.
Scotland has a stubborn addiction to substances spanning generations. Politicians of all persuasions have failed to properly get a grip of the emergency.
But there is a new concept in town.
From Monday, a taxpayer-funded unit is allowing addicts to bring their own heroin and cocaine and inject it while NHS medical teams supervise.
A dirty needle thrown less than 100 metres from the new injection centre
It may be a UK-first but it is a regular feature in some other major European cities that have claimed high success rates in saving lives.
Glasgow has looked on with envy at these other models.
One supermarket car park less than a hundred metres from this new facility is a perfect illustration of the problem. An area littered with dirty needles and paraphernalia. A minefield where one wrong step risks contracting a nasty disease.
Drugs paraphernalia in a supermarket car park in Glasgow, near the new facility
It is estimated hundreds of users inject heroin in public places in Glasgow every week. HIV has been rife.
The new building, which will be open from 9am until 9pm 365 days a year, includes bays where clean needles are provided as part of a persuasive tactic to lure addicts indoors in a controlled environment.
There is a welcome area where people will check in before being invited into one of eight bays. The room is clinical, covered in mirrors, with a row of small medical bins.
Clean needles are provided to lure addicts to inject in a controlled environment
There are eight bays users can inject in
We were shown the aftercare area where users will relax after their hit in the company of housing and social workers.
The idea is controversial and not cheap – £2.3m has been ring-fenced every year.
The aftercare area
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Authorities in the city first floated a ‘safer drug consumption room’ in 2016. It failed to get off the ground as the UK Home Office under the Conservatives said they would not allow people to break the law to feed habits.
The usual wrangle between Edinburgh and London continued for years with Downing Street suggesting Scotland could, if it wanted, use its discretion to allow these injecting rooms to go ahead.
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The stalemate ended when Scotland’s most senior prosecutor issued a landmark decision that it would not be in the public interest to arrest those using such a facility.
One expert has told me this new concept is unlikely to lead to an overall reduction in deaths across Scotland. Another described it as an expensive vanity project. Supporters clearly disagree.
The question is what does success look like?
The big test will be if there is a spike in crime around the building and how it will work alongside law enforcement given drug dealers know exactly where to find their clients now.
It is not disputed this is a radical approach – and other cities across Britain will be watching closely.
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