BMA resident doctors’ committee co-chairs Dr Ross Nieuwoudt and Dr Melissa Ryan yesterday called for a ‘tangible and acceptable’ pay offer.
Commenting on new talks with health secretary Wes Streeting, they said: ‘We hope this time he feels able to bring to the table a more detailed offer of settlement that is tangible and acceptable.’
Following the end of strikes by resident doctors in England on Wednesday, Dr Nieuwoudt and Dr Ryan said: ‘Resident doctors want this to have been their last strike. We are asking Mr Streeting to leave the political rhetoric behind and put the future of the NHS first.
‘He could have prevented strike action if he had made a credible offer last week, instead of what we got: The offer of more talks. Now is the time to get serious.
‘In the coming weeks a new cohort of new doctors will join the NHS workforce, facing a future of tens of thousands of pounds of debt, being paid less than their assistants, and shockingly even unemployment. Many will be already looking to jobs abroad. Something has to change.
‘We hope now will be a moment for the health secretary to reconsider his strategy. Yesterday saw the start of a new dispute with the government over a lack of training posts for doctors.
‘There is now a great opportunity for them to seize: They can address both pay and unemployment and secure the future of the NHS workforce within the next few weeks. All it needs is the boldness to come to the table and start putting down concrete offers.
‘We’re glad to hear Mr Streeting is open to new talks. Let’s make them count.’
However, Streeting said he was not willing to negotiate on pay, but instead resume the previous talks which were focussed on working conditions, including career progression, exam fees and rotas.
In a letter to the BMA on Wednesday, Streeting said the latest strike action was ‘deeply disappointing’ and ‘entirely unnecessary’ given talks that had started could have made substantive improvements to the working lives of doctors.
He added: ‘Your action has also been self-defeating, because you have squandered the considerable goodwill you had with me and this government.’
Meanwhile the BMA is also seeking a deal with government to fix the doctor unemployment crisis, as a survey shows the scale of ‘employment limbo’ looming this summer.
The results of the poll, conducted between 21 and 28 July, has led the BMA to seek a deal with the government to tackle the looming unemployment crisis.
A third (34%) of doctors responding to the poll of 4,401 doctors said they have no substantive employment or regular locum work from August 2025.
This rose to more than half (52%) among 1,053 FY2 (foundation year two) doctors, who are about to complete their foundation training.
Competition for specialty training places, the traditional pathway for doctors to follow when they complete their foundation training, has skyrocketed in recent years.
This year, there were more than 30,000 doctors applying for just 10,000 specialty training places.
The government recently promised, as part of its 10-year health plan, to create 1,000 new specialty training posts over the next three years, but with the situation currently at ‘crisis point’, the BMA says this falls well short of what is needed.
The BMA is therefore launching an additional linked dispute with the government and seeks to make a deal that would solve the looming unemployment crisis, alongside its existing calls to restore eroded pay that is 21% down in real terms against 2008 levels.
