Resident doctors say they had “constructive discussions” with the Secretary of Health, Wes Street, and discussions will continue in the coming days, in order to avoid the planned action for the strike.
Doctors, previously known as junior doctors, announced last week that they would be released for five consecutive days from July 25 to July 30 in a dispute concerning salary.
The representatives of the doctors’ union, the BMA, said that the discussions have so far involved looking at “creative solutions” and “nothing is outside the table”.
The government has insisted that it cannot improve its 5.4% salary increase offer for this year, but is considering other measures to improve working conditions.
Speaking just after the talks, Streting said: “We had a constructive conversation with the BMA today and we will have other conversations in the coming days to try to avoid the action of strike.
“Although we cannot evolve after a salary increase of 28.9%, we are working on areas where we can improve professional life for resident doctors.
“Strikes have a serious cost for patients, so I call on the BMA to cancel them and work together to improve the working conditions of their members and continue to rebuild the NHS.”
The representatives of the Union BMA said that there was an “opportunity window” for new talks to develop.
Before the talks, the Guardian indicated that Streetting plans to offer to raft some of the students’ student debts of doctors, as part of a package to avoid strikes.
Asked about this, Dr. Ross Nieuwoudt of the BMA said: “We have explored many problems, talking about many things at high levels, by examining creative solutions to find a real path of improving the value of being a doctor in the United Kingdom.
“Nothing is completely out of the table.”
Resident doctors obtained an average salary increase of 5.4% for this exercise, which will be devoted to remuneration packages from August, after an increase of 22% in the previous two years.
The BMA arises that in real terms, the remuneration of resident doctors is still about 20% lower than what it was in 2008.
The complaint is based on an inflation measure called retail price index (RPI). This includes housing costs and interest in student loans and shows higher price increases than certain other inflation measures.
The BMA indicates that the 5.4% increase in this year does not prevent them far enough to restore the remuneration of its value 17 years ago.
Announcing strikes last week, Dr. Melissa Ryan and Dr. Ross Nieuwoudt said that doctors had not been “no choice” without a “credible offer to keep us on the way to restore our salary”.
But the street called the “useless and unreasonable” strike, adding: “The NHS is suspended by a thread. Why do he devil threaten to shoot him?”
He says that resident doctors have received the most important increases in public sector employees over the past three years and that the government will no longer have an increase.
But recent talks suggest that other measures are taken into account, including improvements to the working conditions of doctors.
Resident doctors participated in 11 separate strikes in 2023 and 2024.
In order to end the previous strikes last year, the new Labor government granted a rear increase worth 22% over two years.
The action in England will not affect resident doctors in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, who negotiate directly with their deconvised governments during remuneration.
The basic wages of doctors resident in England currently vary from £ £ 37,000 to £ 70,000 per year for a week of 40 hours, according to their years of experience, with additional payments for nuts and working weekends.
