Health Secretary Wes Streeting vows to restart talks with junior doctors next week
5 July 2024, 22:01 | Updated: 6 July 2024, 08:52
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has vowed to restart talks with junior doctors next week.
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Mr Streeting was appointed Health Secretary as part of Keir Starmer's new cabinet on Friday.
He delivered on his promise to call junior doctors in England on "day one" of a Labour Government.
It comes as health leaders have urged the government to resolve the long-running dispute over pay as a "priority" after it emerged that tens of thousands of appointments were postponed as a result of the latest strike.
"I have just spoken over the phone with the BMA (British Medical Association) junior doctors committee, and I can announce that talks to end their industrial action will begin next week," Mr Streeting said in a statement.
"We promised during the campaign that we would begin negotiations as a matter of urgency, and that is what we are doing."
Medics in training across the NHS went on strike for five days from June 27, with 61,989 appointments, procedures and operations postponed as a result of the industrial action.
It marked the 11th strike by junior doctors in 20 months.
Junior doctors in England have said their pay has been cut by more than a quarter over the last 15 years and have called for a 35% increase.
Mr Streeting previously said he would not meet the 35%, adding that if he gave in to the demand then "any trade union worth their salt" would come back the following year with the same request.
He said there is "space for a discussion" on pay, as well as negotiations on how to improve working conditions for medics in training.
BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said in a statement: "We were pleased to speak to the new Health Secretary Wes Streeting today, as he made good on his commitment made during the election campaign for JDC (the junior doctors' committee) to be his first call and get the ball rolling on negotiating a solution to the junior doctors' dispute.
"We expect talks to begin properly next week.
"As we have always been clear, only a credible offer, acceptable to our members, will end this dispute and we hope this will be made by the new government as soon as possible."
