Keir Starmer has accused resident doctors of ‘recklessly’ walking away from a pay deal that would have seen some earn more than £100,000 a year – and given them 48 hours to call off their planned strike.
The medics will walk out for six days from April 7 to April 13 – just after the Easter Bank Holiday weekend – in pursuit of a 26 per cent pay rise.
But the Prime Minister has given the British Medical Association (BMA) 48 hours to call off the industrial action before the Government withdraws an offer of thousands more NHS training posts.
The ‘hypocritical’ union has said that inflation caused by the Iran war means they need a bigger rise despite offering its own staff an uplift of just 2.75 per cent.
Last week, the BMA’s resident doctors’ committee rejected an offer worth up to 7.1 per cent for this year without even putting it to members for a vote. The proposed deal would have taken their total pay rise over the past three years to 35 per cent.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said it meant that ‘for the most experienced resident doctors, basic pay would have increased to £77,348 and average earnings would have exceeded £100,000’.
First-year doctors fresh out of medical school would earn on average £52,000 a year, £12,000 more than three years ago. This is more than many NHS staff in other roles will earn at the peak of their career.
Writing in The Times, Sir Keir admitted that fresh strikes would damage the NHS and urged the BMA to formally consult its members on the Government’s offer.
He said: ‘Walking away from this deal is the wrong decision. It is a reckless decision. And doing so without even giving resident doctors themselves the chance to vote on it makes it even worse.
‘No one benefits from rejecting this deal. Resident doctors will be worse off. Instead of the improved pay, progression and support on offer, they will receive the standard pay award this year.
‘The NHS will be worse off. Each strike costs the NHS £250million in paying for cover. And patients will be worse off. We will do everything we can to protect care. But it would be wrong to pretend there is no impact.’
The deal also included a commitment to create at least 4,000 new specialty training posts in the NHS, for which resident doctors – previously known as junior doctors – can apply after their first two years of training.
But Mr Streeting has said that these posts will be withdrawn if doctors go ahead with the strike, stating that there is ‘not a something for nothing culture here’.
Resident doctors in the final stages of speciality training, who now earn £73,992 in basic pay, would earn £77,348. As medics also earn on average an extra £20,500 a year for overtime, weekends and night shifts, the highest earners could take home more than £100,000 a year.
If the strike goes ahead, it will be the 15th round of action by resident doctors since 2023. Mike Prentice, national director for emergency planning at NHS England, has written to hospital leaders warning: ‘We expect this round to be challenging as there is a shorter notice period, bank holidays… and the Easter holidays.’
The BMA is demanding that consultants who cover for striking junior doctors get paid up to £2,500 per shift to do so.
However, the NHS also said that hospitals must keep pay within ‘normal ranges’.
