Wes Streeting 'hits the reset button' starting pay talks with junior doctors to end crippling NHS strikes

Wes Streeting said he had “hit the reset button” after pay talks with junior doctors offered hope of an end to strikes that have crippled the NHS.

The British Medical Association said they had held "collaborative talks" with the new Health Secretary and hailed a "positive first step" following industrial action which has now lasted in England since 2022. Both parties met at the Department of Health and Social Care headquarters in Westminster following reports Labour may have just three weeks to agree a pay deal and avert more walkouts.

Mr Streeting said: “I met face to face with the junior doctors committee today to hit the reset button on relations between the government and junior doctors.

“Patients, staff, and the NHS have already paid too high a price due to strike action, and I’m optimistic that we can bring this to an end. It’s not going to be easy. This government has inherited the worst set of economic circumstances since the second world war. But both sides have shown willingness to negotiate and we are determined to do the hard work required to find a way through.”

It comes days after a five-day strike by junior doctors became their 11th strike of the current dispute and saw 62,000 appointments cancelled. Industrial disputes between the Tories and doctors, nurses and other NHS staff has led to nearly 1.5 million cancellations since December 2022, at an estimated cost to the health service of over £3 billion.

The BMA has insisted Mr Streeting must commit to returning junior doctors real terms pay back to 2008 levels to end the walkouts. Its junior doctors committee insists this can be achieved over a number of years but would mean a 35% pay uplift. Mr Streeting has previously insisted this was “unaffordable” but offered hope when later saying pay restoration could be a “journey not an event”.

Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson, committee co-chairs, said there are no plans for more strike action "at the moment" as talks progress. More talks are planned for next week. In a joint statement, they said: “This dispute has lasted far too long and has cost the NHS far more than it would have taken to solve from the beginning.

“Mr Streeting has been following this dispute closely and can be under no illusions: not about the consequences of government delay, nor about the determination of our membership to achieve pay restoration, nor about the hopes of millions of patients for an end to this avoidable dispute.

“From the start we have been very clear about what would end it: a credible offer that begins to restore the real-terms pay that junior doctors have lost since 2008. As we have said repeatedly in this dispute, we are open to discussing the timeframe over which pay restoration can occur. But what is important is having a negotiating partner who takes the principle seriously. Mr Streeting has said pay restoration will be a journey: we are looking to set off.”

Negotiations are likely to take weeks but the new Government believes a deal can be done, pointing to Wales and Scotland, where doctors settled for a rise of 12.4%. Doctors rejected a similar deal offered by the Conservatives in England. Crucially both the Welsh and Scottish governments promised to work towards "pay restoration back to 2008 levels", even though no timescale was attached.

Mr Streeting added: “I am angry about the way the junior doctors are treated in the NHS, and there is a lot we can do to change that. Junior doctors are the future of the health service and I want to work with them to turn around our NHS.

“I’m looking forward to meeting them again next week to discuss what went wrong in past talks, and to make further progress on finding a solution to this dispute.”