Junior doctors begin five days of strikes
Good morning. Junior doctors are beginning a five-day strike in England today.
It is being described as the longest walkout of its kind in the NHS’s history amid ongoing protests over pay in the health service.
The strikes are being held amid speculation the government will say if it is going to accept recommendations from pay review bodies affecting public sector workers including teachers, civil servants and NHS workers.
There is speculation that the bodies have recommended rises of between 6% and 6.5%.
BMA leaders urged the Government to return to the negotiating table in a bid to resolve the long-running row, which has already led to a series of strikes and thousands of cancelled operations and consultations.
BMA leaders Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said:
Today marks the start of the longest single walkout by doctors in the NHS’s history, but this is still not a record that needs to go into the history books.
We can call this strike off today if the UK Government will simply follow the example of the government in Scotland and drop their nonsensical precondition of not talking whilst strikes are announced and produce an offer which is credible to the doctors they are speaking with.
The pay offer on the table to junior doctors in Scotland and how it was reached throws into sharp relief the obstinate approach being taken by the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary, Steve Barclay.
The Health Secretary has said there can be no talks while strikes are planned – Scotland has proved him wrong. He said above 5% wasn’t realistic – Scotland proved him wrong. He refused to even acknowledge the concept of pay restoration – Scotland proved this is not only possible but essential.
The BMA leaders said talks have to be resumed, adding:
The government’s refusal to talk with junior doctors in England who have strikes planned is out of keeping with all norms of industrial action.
Doctors have a right to expect that as in Scotland, and as in many other recent industrial disputes, talks will continue right up to the last minute to try and reach a deal without the need to strike.
The complete inflexibility we see from the UK government today is baffling, frustrating and ultimately destructive for everyone who wants waiting lists to go down and NHS staffing numbers to go up.
The government has missed chance after chance to provide a credible offer and potentially bring to an end the industrial action by junior doctors in England and whilst there are differences between junior doctors and governments in England and Scotland, the UK government has far more financial freedom to give doctors what they deserve.
We’ll bring you the latest updates on this and other political stories throughout the day.
Key events
Sunak and Hunt due to meet to finalise public sector pay deals
Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt are finalising decisions on pay for millions of public sector workers against a backdrop of a doctors’ strike, a weak economy and persistent high inflation.
The prime minister and chancellor are meeting on Thursday to decide whether to accept the recommendations of pay bodies which are thought to be suggesting rises of around 6-6.5% for a variety of professions from medics to teachers, PA Media reported.
A failure to accept the reports would provoke further rows with the unions, a problem underlined as junior doctors embarked on their longest walkout yet in England on Thursday.
The Treasury has ruled out increasing borrowing to pay for wage rises, meaning any extra cash for workers may have to come from raiding existing departmental budges, potentially meaning cuts to services.
The current level of CPI inflation is running at 8.7% and Sunak – who has promised to cut it to about 5.3% by the end of the year – wants to avoid pay increases which could fuel a wage-price spiral.
The wider economic challenge facing the Chancellor and prime minister was illustrated by official figures showing the UK economy contracted in May.
Written statements listed on Thursday’s order paper show ministers are due to give updates on the NHS, police, teachers, the armed forces, civil service and the justice system.
Disruption to thousands of planned appointments is expected as junior doctors in England on Thursday started their longest walkout yet in protest over pay.
The strike started at 7am and ends at the same time on Tuesday.
A junior doctor on the picket lane outside University College Hospital in central London said many medics are considering moving abroad to work.
Arjan Sing, 27, who works in the capital, told the PA news agency:
Medicine is one of those careers you have to start planning for from about the age of 14 so people spend their lives planning their career.
Those people are now thinking of leaving and they’re now making concrete plans to leave.
There are all these countries that care about their doctors and our government is not respecting us.
People have seen this coming and doctors have realised they work in a global market, they’re not restricted to this country.
NHS Providers has urged both sides to resume talks in a bid to head off more industrial action.
Deputy chief executive Saffron Cordery said:
The impact of these disputes is fraying the fabric of the NHS, held together by a unique sense of commitment and shared endeavour across the workforce that has served it so well over so many years. We lose that at our peril.
The disruption for many thousands of patients and the potential harm of delaying their treatment is a huge and growing risk for the NHS to manage.
Trusts will hardly have time to draw breath after a five-day walkout by junior doctors before consultants strike for two days, followed by a two-day strike by radiographers.
The domino effect of repeated waves of industrial action is eroding the fundamental relationship between trust leaders and their staff.
Trust leaders understand the strength of feeling among striking staff, who they value and work with for patients every day, and why they are taking action. Trusts will continue to do everything they can to limit disruption and keep patients safe but that’s getting harder and more expensive with every strike as the cost of hiring cover grows, and with staff dissatisfaction increasing as disputes remain unresolved.
Eight consecutive months of industrial action across the NHS are taking their toll not just on patients, with more than 651,000 routine procedures and appointments forced to be rescheduled, but on already overstretched services – hampering efforts to cut waiting lists.
Sunak won’t meet NHS waiting times pledge if strikes continue, warn health bosses
Denis Campbell
Rishi Sunak’s pledge to cut NHS waiting times will be impossible to meet if strikes are still disrupting care beyond the summer, health service chiefs have privately warned ministers.
The prime minister promised in January that “NHS waiting lists will fall” when he outlined five pledges, reflecting “the people’s priorities”, by which voters should judge his performance, he said.
However, NHS England has told ministers that hospitals will not be able to ensure that Sunak fulfils his pledge because of the disruption caused by junior doctors’ ongoing strikes.
Services, including surgery and outpatient appointments, will be hit again from Thursday when tens of thousands of junior doctors in England take part in a five-day walkout – the longest stoppage in NHS history. It will be their fourth bout of industrial action since March.
Junior doctors begin five days of strikes
Good morning. Junior doctors are beginning a five-day strike in England today.
It is being described as the longest walkout of its kind in the NHS’s history amid ongoing protests over pay in the health service.
The strikes are being held amid speculation the government will say if it is going to accept recommendations from pay review bodies affecting public sector workers including teachers, civil servants and NHS workers.
There is speculation that the bodies have recommended rises of between 6% and 6.5%.
BMA leaders urged the Government to return to the negotiating table in a bid to resolve the long-running row, which has already led to a series of strikes and thousands of cancelled operations and consultations.
BMA leaders Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said:
Today marks the start of the longest single walkout by doctors in the NHS’s history, but this is still not a record that needs to go into the history books.
We can call this strike off today if the UK Government will simply follow the example of the government in Scotland and drop their nonsensical precondition of not talking whilst strikes are announced and produce an offer which is credible to the doctors they are speaking with.
The pay offer on the table to junior doctors in Scotland and how it was reached throws into sharp relief the obstinate approach being taken by the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary, Steve Barclay.
The Health Secretary has said there can be no talks while strikes are planned – Scotland has proved him wrong. He said above 5% wasn’t realistic – Scotland proved him wrong. He refused to even acknowledge the concept of pay restoration – Scotland proved this is not only possible but essential.
The BMA leaders said talks have to be resumed, adding:
The government’s refusal to talk with junior doctors in England who have strikes planned is out of keeping with all norms of industrial action.
Doctors have a right to expect that as in Scotland, and as in many other recent industrial disputes, talks will continue right up to the last minute to try and reach a deal without the need to strike.
The complete inflexibility we see from the UK government today is baffling, frustrating and ultimately destructive for everyone who wants waiting lists to go down and NHS staffing numbers to go up.
The government has missed chance after chance to provide a credible offer and potentially bring to an end the industrial action by junior doctors in England and whilst there are differences between junior doctors and governments in England and Scotland, the UK government has far more financial freedom to give doctors what they deserve.
We’ll bring you the latest updates on this and other political stories throughout the day.
