Talks between Health Secretary Wes Streeting and the British Medical Association (BMA) will take place next week in a bid to avert strike action in England’s NHS, the BBC understands.<\/p>\n
Resident doctors, previously known as junior doctors, announced earlier this week that they will walk out for five consecutive days from 25 July until 30 July over a dispute about pay with the government.<\/p>\n
The BMA said strikes would only be called off if next week’s talks produce an offer it can put to its members.<\/p>\n
The government has insisted it cannot improve its offer of a 5.4% increase for this year.<\/p>\n
Resident doctors were awarded a 5.4% pay rise for this financial year – which will go into pay packets from August – following a 22% increase over the previous two years.<\/p>\n
But they are arguing that pay in real terms is still around 20% lower than it was in 2008 and have called for the government to set out a pathway to restoring its value.<\/p>\n
They believe that this year’s 5.4% increase doesn’t take them far enough down that path.<\/p>\n
Health department sources have told the BBC the health secretary is sympathetic to improving working conditions for resident doctors, but he won’t budge on salaries.<\/p>\n
After the BMA’s strike announcement, Streeting called the strike “unnecessary and unreasonable”, adding: “The NHS is hanging by a thread – why on earth are they threatening to pull it?”<\/p>\n
He said the government was “ready and willing” to work with the BMA, but any further strike action would be a disaster for patients and push back the progress made in reducing waiting lists in England.<\/p>\n
BMA resident doctor committee co-chairs, Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt, said on Wednesday they had been left with “no choice” but to strike without a “credible offer to keep us on the path to restore our pay”.<\/p>\n