Wes Streeting has failed in an attempt to end the long-standing resident doctors’ contract with a new offer to them, which means that their five-day strike next week is expected to last the week.
The Secretary of Health Torto in a new offer to resident doctors – previously junior doctors – in England on Wednesday in a move intended to avoid the strike, their 13th.
But British Residents rejected the British Assocy Committee’s (RDC) attempted Streeting olive branch and said his proposal was too limited for them to call their action.
Street has pledged to double his previous offer to create 1,000 more places for Early Career Doctors to travel in their chosen field of medicine. Half of those 2,000 will be available this year to help deal with a bottleneck of resident doctors turning specialists, he said.
In addition, the NHS puts a lot of money in the pockets of resident doctors by paying fees for the exams they take and the professional bodies they belong to.
However, the run that increases their payment even in 2025-26, citing tight public finances and the increase in 2023 to explain his failure to do so. Most of that increase will come since Labor took office in July 2024.
But Dr Jack Fletcher, the chair of the RDC, changed the offer to the streak and said it would leave many doctors without their careers and out of a job.
“It’s not good enough,” he said. “Even with this offer, thousands of doctors still cannot find a job. Thirty thousand doctors applied out of 10,000 [training] places this year – [so] 1,000 more will not fix this crisis, nor will it get anywhere in doing so.
“Regardless of the truth of this offer, the streets of MR still do not face the gravity of the situation: Doctors face unemployment while patients cannot see a doctor.”
He encouraged the run to offer residents a multi-year sex deal that would lead them to restore overtime their wages from 2006, although he did not explain the 2% increase in Bma. The 2.5% street increase on offer for 2026-27 would be another real terms pay cut, he added.
“Strikes can be avoided but first we need to be prepared to offer a settlement deal and a real solution to jobs,” said Fletcher.