Doctors offered cheaper lunches in last-ditch effort by Wes Streeting to avoid five-day strike but rejected deal
The Sun can reveal the Health Secretary's final snubbed offer to the British Medical Association ahead of tomorrow's five-day walkout.
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While warning he 'cannot move on pay', he proposed to reduce the costs of exams, equipment, and even 'food and drink costs experienced by doctors'.
Mr Streeting also stressed a £100million investment in post-graduate training places in 2027/28.
A letter sent on Monday - since rejected - said: 'We can resolve this dispute without the need for strike action, and I urge you to seriously consider my offer for a way forward.
'Postponing your strike action to allow discussions to take place does not cost you anything, and your mandate to undertake strike action remains intact.'
Striking doctors could be heading for their lowest picket line turnout since the pay row began.
Just 27,000 voted 'yes' to walkouts - the lowest so far.
The strongest turnout was in March 2023 as 29,000 downed tools each day, after 36,000 voted to.
'If the turnout is the same as the first strike, there will be 21,000 at the picket line.
Those who voted 'no' quadrupled to 2,956. Sean Phillips, of the Policy Exchange think tank, said: 'The indications are this turnout will be lower, given a reduced mandate for strikes.'
Hospitals have this time refused to cancel appointments.
But the BMA's Ross Nieuwoudt said if hospital chiefs fail to cover A&E by doing so it could be 'a dereliction of duty'.
BMA chair Dr Tom Dolphin was criticised after appearing to compare US murder suspect Luigi Mangione to Jesus in an online post.
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Daily Mirror
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Doctors' strikes 'could last more than six months' as first NHS walkout ends
BStrike leaders from the British Medical Association staged a picket line at Health Secretary Wes Streeting's local hospital today amid renewed calls for pay talks Striking doctors have suggested walkouts could go on for more than six months if Wes Streeting does not make them an improved offer. Strike leaders staged a picket line at the Health Secretary's local hospital on the final day of a five-day strike. Resident doctors in the British Medical Association have voted to secure a legal mandate to strike until January 2026. The BMA's resident doctors committee co-chair Dr Ross Nieuwoudt was asked outside King George Hospital in Ilford, east London, whether strikes could go on after then into next year. He replied: "We are incredibly hopeful that Wes Streeting and the Government at large see sense and come to talk to us now so that doesn't even have to be a consideration. That would require a new ballot but we're hoping it doesn't have to get there at all. "All Wes Streeting needs to do is talk to us now; the door is open. That is the best-case scenario... for him to come and talk to us and resolve this dispute." The British Medical Association is holding out for a full return to 2008 levels of pay, arguing that by the Retail Price Index Measure of inflation their real terms salaries are down a fifth since then. Mr Streeting said last week that the BMA's resident doctors committee co-chairs had 'seriously underestimated me' after they ended last ditch talks to avert the strike. The Government has refused to budge on the headline pay rise of 5.4% - pointing out it is an above inflation deal for the second year running - but had been negotiating on other issues such as the cost of training. Speaking from the picket line no Tuesday, Dr Shivam Sharma, resident doctor in north London, said: 'We've had our pay cut by over a fifth but we don't see fewer patients, we don't do less work, in fact our work has become harder. What we're asking for is for a doctor who 's paid just over £18 an hour to be paid just over £22 an hour. 'We're not asking for this money in one go. We're asking for it over a number of years… So please Mr Streeting… do the right thing by everyone.' The BMA would not be drawn on whether and how quickly it will start planning more strikes. Its resident doctors committee co-chair Dr Melissa Ryan said: "There doesn't need to be a single day of strike action. Wes Streeting knows what he has to do. If he wants to resolve the dispute, he has to contact us and present a credible offer. "We do have a mandate that is going all the way into January but... it's a damn shame we have to do a single day of strike action and Mr Streeting can prevent that." NHS officials have pledged that cancelled bookings would be rescheduled within two weeks but warned of knock-on impacts for other patients. Dr Layla McCay, director of policy at NHS Confederation, said: "Resident doctors have recently had a very substantial increase in their pay and the Government has been pretty clear that at the moment, there isn't more money to be negotiated. Clearly the Government is quite keen to have those discussions about other non-pay factors, like workforce conditions. "I think that the hope of all healthcare leaders is that the BMA will get around the table with the Government and figure out a solution to this, because what absolutely nobody wants to see is any further cases of industrial action after this one." The BMA has also launched a "linked dispute" with the Government over a lack of places for doctors in training. The union said that this year there were more than 30,000 resident doctors applying for just 10,000 specialty training places. A poll by the union, conducted on 4,400 doctors over the last week, found that 52% of resident doctors completing their second year of training - when they enter specialty training - do not have substantive employment lined up from August. In a joint statement, co-chairs Dr Ross Nieuwoudt and Dr Melissa Ryan said: 'With more than six million patients on waiting lists in England, it's maddening that a third of resident doctors say they cannot get a job. Across the NHS, this means potentially thousands of UK doctors are left in employment limbo when patients desperately need their care. 'Commitments from the Government to address this don't go far enough or are too vague to convince us that they understand the gravity of the situation, so we're making clear that, alongside pay, we are entering a dispute and demanding action so that no UK-trained, capable, doctor is left underemployed in the NHS.'
Daily Mail
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Richard Bacon reveals he's now reliant on heartburn tablets and vitamin injections to cope with the fallout from his heavy drinking - and quit AA because it's 'boring'
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Speaking on The Perfect Day podcast with Jessica Knappett, he added: 'You know you drink too much when you have a lot of Rennie. You know you're middle aged and you drink too much and you're popping those things.' The father-of-two also confessed to a regular habit of having vitamin B12 injections to cope with the after-effects of drinking too much. 'A vitamin B12 injection in your bum is famously good for hangovers. It brings you back to life,' he said. 'At the end of last year and for the first few months of this year, I had one a week. I've got this doctor - he's a bit like Michael Jackson's doctor - he just gives me anything I ask for.' 'At one point I had eight prescriptions and there wasn't really much wrong with me. He's just like, 'you're a bit deficient in this, bit deficient in that. Bit of this, bit of that.' A lot of it's sort of vitamin based, but weirdly prescription based. But it did work… He's terrific.' Richard was sacked from children's TV programme Blue Peter in 1998 after admitting to taking cocaine. To this day he is the only presenter in the history of the show to have been sacked. 'I got a Blue Peter job at 21 and then lost it at 22 and it was a big scandal at the time,' Richard reflected. 'I suppose there's something about getting caught for taking drugs where you can just come back, can't you? It's not one of the worst ones. 'There are far worse ones that make you look like a malicious person. If you beat someone up, do something aggressively sexual, say something racist... those reveal something about you that people don't like. I think the desire to get drunk and get high is something people generally can get over.' Now a successful creator of TV formats and the man behind shows like This Is My House and I Literally Just Told You, Richard admits his lifestyle can still get in the way. 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