Junior doctors will meet government officials for talks aimed at ending the long-running dispute over pay and conditions in the English NHS.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said it had agreed to the talks, although the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said the issue of pay would not be on the table.
The meeting is expected to take place next week, although no date has yet been fixed. The BMA said: “We have agreed to talks with DHSC. We will be meeting with them next week and will listen to what they have to say.”
A DHSC spokesperson said: “We are pleased the BMA Junior doctors’ committee has agreed to enter talks, in the hope we will find a resolution and end the dispute.
“We have been clear headline pay will not be on the table as doctors have already received a fair and reasonable pay rise as recommended by the independent pay review body, which we’ve accepted in full.
“This means doctors who started their hospital training this year have received a 10.3% pay increase, with the average junior doctor getting 8.8%.”
The BMA has also said specialist, associate specialist and specialty (SAS) doctors in England would meet the government for talks.
The BMA’s SAS committee said a formal ballot for industrial action would be held if no progress was made by 6 November.
Most SAS doctors work in hospitals, alongside junior doctors and consultants, but some also work in the community.
Dr Ujjwala Mohite, the chair of the SAS committee UK at the BMA, said: “The BMA is more than willing to continue talking to the government about SAS doctors’ concerns – we don’t want to have to take industrial action and remain hopeful that this next step will lead to detailed and meaningful progress.
“The government cannot ignore the strength of feeling on the ground, however. SAS doctors are overworked and exhausted, and have had enough of not being properly valued for the vital work they do – something we have been hearing at a grassroots level for a long time and which was strongly echoed in the overwhelming indicative ballot results.
“On top of chronic underinvestment and a lack of resource in the NHS, the last 15 years has seen real-terms pay for SAS doctors shrink by as much as 31%, and many are struggling to find reasons to stay in the health service. Like other hospital colleagues, many are now being pushed to reduce their hours or leave altogether, putting patient safety at risk and increasing pressures on the NHS.
“That’s why, with four months of stagnant talks behind us so far, we must be prepared to take the next step and ballot for industrial action if we absolutely have to – and we will do this on 6 November if upcoming negotiations fail to achieve anything for our profession.
“The health secretary says in his latest letter that he is ‘keen to avoid a vote for strike action’, but this requires him to make real progress with us. No doctor wants to have to strike, and we hope we can still avoid it, but the only way we can do that is if the government listens to our concerns, and properly responds to them.”
