resident doctors

Doctors call for ‘less name-calling and more deal-making’ from Health Secretary Wes Streeting

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/doctors-call-less-name-calling-and-more-deal-making-health-secretary-wes-streeting

 Resident doctors on the picket line outside Leeds General Infirmary, on the first day of a five-day walkout over pay and jobs, which could see up to half of the medical workforce in England could stop work, December 17, 2025

RESIDENT doctors are keen to resume talks with the government to avoid further strikes but “must see less name-calling and more deal-making” from Health Secretary Wes Streeting, said the British Medical Association (BMA) today.

Medics will enter 2026 a “renewed can-do spirit,” added the union as they returned to work after a five-day walkout in England as part of their long-running dispute over jobs and pay.

The BMA’s resident doctors committee chair Dr Jack Fletcher said: “What we need is a proper fix to this jobs crisis and a credible path towards restoring the lost value of the profession.

“That must mean the creation of genuinely new jobs, and it could involve a responsible multi-year approach to restoring doctors’ pay.

“Those are solutions that mean we can build out our future workforce to end the current crisis, solutions which are very much within government’s power.”

The strike followed 83 per cent of resident doctors voting to reject a government offer for more specialist training places but no extra pay. Turnout was 65 per cent.

Dr Fletcher said that medics are “frustrated by the year that has just passed,” which saw Mr Streeting compare them with juvenile delinquents and “moaning minnies.”

“There have been plenty of opportunities for strike action to have been avoided but all too often the government has moved too little and too late,” he added.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/doctors-call-less-name-calling-and-more-deal-making-health-secretary-wes-streeting

Continue ReadingDoctors call for ‘less name-calling and more deal-making’ from Health Secretary Wes Streeting

Streeting warned ‘irresponsible’ public tirades won’t avert plans for doctor strikes

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/streeting-warned-irresponsible-public-tirades-wont-avert-plans-doctor-strikes

 Junior doctors and members of the British Medical Association (BMA) outside Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, January 3, 2024

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NHS campaigners issued a furious response after he told LBC: “I cannot guarantee, I honestly don’t want to catastrophise or sensationalise, I cannot sit here and look you in the eye and tell you that no patient will come to harm.”

BMA resident doctors’ committee chair Dr Jack Fletcher said: “Ultimately, the health secretary has far more power to prevent NHS strikes than he gives himself credit for; not through confrontation, but by rebuilding trust and putting an offer on the table that creates sufficient brand-new training places for doctors, not changing the names of existing roles. 

“His current offer does not create any more capacity for us to treat patients, or do anything to help clear waiting lists; let’s be clear about that.”

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Keep Our NHS Public co-chair Dr Tony O’Sullivan told the Morning Star: “It is the height of irresponsible behaviour from the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, to go to war with doctors and the BMA amid the flu epidemic and this, the second winter crisis since the Starmer–Streeting administration took office. 

“The government cannot pretend that they had no warning, that they didn’t see it coming. Nor should they deny that it is their responsibility to deal with it. 

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“The government must take action to give NHS resident doctors, and other staff, the remuneration they deserve.

“But instead, as with the scapegoating of migrants and asylum-seekers as the cause of multiple ills, the government’s self-serving reaction is to scapegoat doctors and their union, the BMA, for the NHS crisis Labour was voted into office to solve.”

Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/streeting-warned-irresponsible-public-tirades-wont-avert-plans-doctor-strikes

Continue ReadingStreeting warned ‘irresponsible’ public tirades won’t avert plans for doctor strikes

Wes Streeting berates doctor live on-air as five-day BMA strike begins

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/wes-streeting-berates-doctor-live-air-five-day-bma-strike-begins

 Junior doctors and members of the British Medical Association (BMA) on the picket line outside Cheltenham General Hospital during their continuing dispute over pay, January 8, 2024

HEALTH SECRETARY Wes Streeting ranted on live radio today as thousands of resident doctors began their five-day strike in England.

He unleashed a tirade on LBC after north London doctor Niraj told him that “we all care about patient safety, none of us wants to be on strike, I would rather be at work today.”

The British Medical Association (BMA) called the 13th strike by doctors since March 2023, having long called for their pay to be restored to pre-austerity rates.

Despite rises by Labour, it remains about a fifth down on its real-terms value in 2008.

Mr Streeting clashed angrily after Niraj raised his union’s concerns over a lack of training places and other workforce issues.

He accused doctors of “inflicting pain and misery” on patients and holding them to ransom by its “extremely irresponsible” action.

The Health Secretary claimed the “extremely unnecessary” strikes were shocking given patients receive “a substandard service” and that the BMA was speaking for its “activists” rather than their members.

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/wes-streeting-berates-doctor-live-air-five-day-bma-strike-begins

Continue ReadingWes Streeting berates doctor live on-air as five-day BMA strike begins

Resident doctors’ 29% pay claim is non-negotiable, BMA chair says

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/11/resident-doctors-29-pay-claim-is-non-negotiable-bma-chair-says

NHS emblem
NHS logo. Resident doctors in England will strike later this month after being offered a 5.4% pay rise, which the government say will not be revisited.

Resident doctors’ 29% pay claim is non-negotiable, reasonable and easily affordable for the NHS, the new leader of the medical profession has said.

Strikes to ensure resident – formerly junior – doctors in England get the full 29% could drag on for years, according to Dr Tom Dolphin, the British Medical Association’s new council chair.

The doctors’ union will not negotiate on or accept a lower figure because that is the extent of the real-terms loss of earnings resident doctors have suffered since 2008, which they want restored – in full – Dolphin told the Guardian in his first interview since taking over last month.

The 29% demand is not up for negotiation “because it’s based on a principle”, said Dolphin, a consultant anaesthetist. “If we picked a different number, that wouldn’t achieve the pay restoration. So that’s why it looks inflexible.”

Dolphin blamed the five-day strike that tens of thousands of resident doctors plan to stage later this month on Wes Streeting, the health secretary, giving them a 22% pay rise over two years last year but not following it up with an award this year to take account of the 29% claim. He said the disruption that the 120-hour walkout would cause was his fault, not theirs.

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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/11/resident-doctors-29-pay-claim-is-non-negotiable-bma-chair-says

Continue ReadingResident doctors’ 29% pay claim is non-negotiable, BMA chair says

Resident doctors vote for strikes that could hit the NHS for six months

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/resident-doctors-vote-strikes-could-hit-nhs-six-months

 Junior doctors and members of the British Medical Association (BMA) outside Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, January 3, 2024

THE NHS could face six months of disruption after resident doctors in England voted in favour of strike action today.

Downing Street said that pay negotiations would not be reopened because the government “can’t be more generous” than it has been already this year.

Some 90 per cent of voting resident doctors in England, formerly known as junior doctors, said they would down stethoscopes and take to picket lines amid an ongoing row over pay.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said that there had been a turnout of 55 per cent and that resident doctors needed an increase of 29.2 per cent to reverse “pay erosion” since 2008-09.

The union added that there was “still time to avert strike action” and urged the government to “come forward as soon as possible with a credible path to pay restoration.”

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/resident-doctors-vote-strikes-could-hit-nhs-six-months

Continue ReadingResident doctors vote for strikes that could hit the NHS for six months