Streeting and BMA to hold talks to avoid doctor strikes
Earlier this week, the BMA announced resident doctors – formerly junior doctors – in England would walk out for five consecutive days from 7am on July 25 amid a pay dispute with the Government.
The BBC said discussions would take place next week, with the BMA telling the broadcaster that industrial action would only be called off if it received an offer it could put to its members.
Mr Streeting, the Health Secretary, is reportedly sympathetic to improving working conditions for doctors, but will not budge on salaries.
The strikes threaten to drive a wrecking ball through the NHS, sending waiting lists soaring.
The hospital appointment backlog rose by 10,000 on average every day junior doctors went on strike over the past two years, analysis by The Telegraph shows.
The waiting list stood at 7.21 million at the start of 2023 but rose throughout the next 18 months to 7.62 million in July as junior doctors staged 11 separate walkouts lasting multiple days.
Reacting to the BMA announcement on Wednesday, Mr Streeting called the move 'completely unreasonable' and urged the union to 'abandon their rush to strike', while health chiefs warned strikes are 'unfair to patients'.
Mr Streeting told the Commons on Thursday: 'We have put the NHS on the road to recovery, but we all know that the NHS is still hanging by a thread, and that the BMA is threatening to pull it.'
Daniel Elkeles, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospital leaders, said earlier this week that the strike action could only be harmful.
'It's totally unfair to patients whose care will be cancelled at such short notice just as the NHS was beginning to turn the tide on reducing waiting lists,' he said.
'It shows a lack of respect for colleagues from many other disciplines who received lower pay rises and will now have to cover resident doctors' work.'
Some 90pc of voting resident doctors backed the strike action, with the BMA reporting a turnout of 55pc.
The union has said that resident doctors need a pay uplift of 29.3pc to reverse 'pay erosion' since 2008/09.
In September, BMA members voted to accept a government pay deal worth 22.3pc on average over two years.
The 2025/26 pay deal saw resident doctors given a 4pc uplift plus £750 'on a consolidated basis' – working out as an average pay rise of 5.4pc.
The BMA call for a 29.3pc uplift is based on Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation, the measure of average changes in the price of goods and services used by most households.
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