Streeting sets out fresh offer to resident doctors in bid to avert strikes

Wes Streeting has made a fresh package of offers to resident doctors in a bid to avert strike action.

Resident doctors in England, formerly known as junior doctors, are set to strike for five days from Friday next week in an ongoing row over jobs and pay.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said resident doctors will walk out from 7am on November 14 to 7am on November 19.

Health and Social Care Secretary Mr Streeting has now set out a package of measures and called on doctors to call off the “unnecessary” strike action.

The package includes doubling speciality training posts to avoid doctors being out of work, and other incentives including covering the costs of mandatory exams and membership fees.

In a letter to resident doctors, he said: “The offer is one that will deliver more training places for resident doctors, put more money in your pockets, and improve your working lives.

“It will also protect patients – and your fellow NHS staff – from the disruption and damage of industrial action should you choose to accept this offer.”

Mr Streeting has previously said the Government will not budge on headline pay.

In the letter, he adds: “I must underline that the enormous financial pressures facing the country mean I am not able to go further on pay.

“We cannot afford to do more at this time and no amount of strike action will change this.”

He said strike action “hurts patients, sets back our progress, costs the NHS £240 million that could’ve been spent on frontline improvements”.

In a separate letter to the chairman of the BMA’s resident doctors committee (RDC), Jack Fletcher, Mr Streeting said: “It is an offer that will deliver more training places for your members, put more money into their pockets, and improve their working lives.

“It will also protect patients from the disruption and damage of industrial action, should your members choose to accept it.

“If further strikes were to go ahead, I would simply not be able to afford to offer the non-pay package again.”

In the letter, dated November 5, Mr Streeting added: “We need to know whether the BMA RDC will accept this offer by Thursday November 6.

“You can continue to pursue unnecessary strike action, which will cause disruption to patients, harm the NHS’s recovery and mean that at least some parts of this offer become unaffordable.

“Or you can put an end to this damaging period of industrial action and work in partnership with the Government to both deliver real change and improvements for resident doctors and rebuild our heath service and make it fit for the future.”

The BMA has been approached for comment.