NHS leaders urge junior doctors and ministers to settle pay strike

Health leaders on Tuesday urged junior doctors and ministers to hold fresh talks over pay, as patients and NHS staff felt the first effects of a 96-hour strike that axed thousands of operations and appointments across England.

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, said he expected the situation to become “more challenging each day this strike progresses”. As the week went on, staff cover would be stretched “as those who worked tirelessly over the Easter holiday take leave, which will pose a huge challenge to an already depleted workforce”, he warned.

The longest-ever strike by doctors below consultant grade comes as the BMA pushes for a 35 per cent pay rise, saying the increase is needed to compensate for 15 years of pay erosion.

Miriam Deakin, director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, which represents health trusts in England, said GPs, paramedics, pharmacists and community matrons were all collaborating with consultants and specialist doctors to minimise the risk to patient safety.

But she cautioned that getting through the first day of the strike was “just the start” and that trust leaders were “worried about securing adequate cover for the night shifts ahead”.

“It is exasperating to hear the government and unions talking about why they can’t get together rather than just sitting down and talking. We need a leap of imagination from all parties . . . to end the strikes now,” said Deakin, adding that she understood junior doctors’ frustration over years of real-terms pay cuts.

Matthew Taylor, head of the NHS Confederation, which speaks for health organisations across the country, also stressed the urgent need for talks.

“A period of negotiation is likely to happen eventually — it’s just a question of when and how much damage will be caused along the way,” he said, adding that health leaders wanted “both sides to do everything within their power to find some common ground as soon as possible”.

One senior clinician coping with the strike fallout on the frontline said both sides needed to “grow up” and begin negotiations, adding that he would like to “bang heads together”.

However, one health official in touch with both sides said they appeared to be as far apart as ever and that there was no immediate prospect of securing a basis for talks.

“If anything, they feel more entrenched . . . than they have been,” he added.

Downing Street said on Tuesday that it was “ready and willing to negotiate” as it had done “successfully with other health unions”, but that the BMA’s demand for 35 per cent was “completely out of step with other workers in the public sector”.

“We cannot negotiate from that starting point,” said Number 10, adding that it was “not affordable for the British taxpayer”.

Ipsos, a polling company, said on Tuesday that its research had found 54 per cent of Britons supported the junior doctors’ strike, with just under one-quarter opposed.

The BMA has said health secretary Steve Barclay must come forward with a “credible” offer for it to pause strike action — a message reinforced on Tuesday by Dr Emma Runswick, deputy chair of the union’s ruling council, who told the BBC that it had never set any preconditions for talks.

“Our demand is for reversal of pay cuts. That’s what we want. If they’re prepared to put an offer on the table, we’re prepared to negotiate,” she said.