Why furious health bosses are braced for painful battle with BMA
While Wes Streeting, the health secretary, accuses the British Medical Association (BMA) of 'complete disdain for patients', many around him have concluded the body's leadership are in fact too weak to persuade their members to back a deal.
They only way out, they increasingly believe, is effectively to break the union, something BMA leaders warn would be 'counterproductive', scuppering hopes of cutting waiting lists and driving doctors away from the NHS.
The anger is so great because government officials working over the weekend thought they had a deal that would at least postpone the strikes. While Streeting has refused to reopen a pay settlement, he was ready to promise a range of improvements to resident doctors' working conditions that would leave them thousands of pounds better off.
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