Wes Streeting confirmed that resident doctors have agreed to hold “talks to avert strike action”. The health secretary said that the Government has been “clear” that it will not open negotiations about this year’s pay. It comes as the British Medical Association (BMA) announced last week that resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – in England would walk out for five consecutive days from 7am on July 25 amid an ongoing pay dispute with the Government. Report by Gluszczykm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
00:00Well, I'm really pleased that the BMA have responded to my offer to sit down and talk to try and avert these strikes.
00:07I'm very clear we can't go further on pay. We've already given them a 28.9% pay increase and they've had the largest pay award the entire public sector this year.
00:17So offering more would be unaffordable but also unfair to other NHS staff and other public sector workers.
00:23But there's plenty of stuff we can do and want to work on together that would improve the lives of resident doctors, improve the service for patients and give everyone a win-win out of this situation.
00:36So that's what I'm looking to achieve.
00:38Their whole dispute has been about pay. That's why the government has moved and given them a 28.9% pay increase.
00:47They can't just dismiss that or forget that. That's come at considerable cost to the taxpayer.
00:54And also it's the highest pay award in the entire public sector. So we've got to be fair to other staff in the NHS.
01:00If strikes go ahead, everyone loses. Doctors lose, the NHS loses, patients lose and the public lose.
01:08And that's not a situation I think the majority of resident doctors want to find themselves in, which is why they didn't support the strike action in the first place.
