Latest news with #residentDoctors
Daily Mail
26-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Resident doctors fire the starting gun on a Labour summer of discontent by launching a strike ballot over NHS pay
Militant resident doctors today fire the starting gun on a Labour summer of discontent by launching a strike ballot over NHS pay. The British Medical Association is urging members to support up to six months of walkouts, with fears nurses, teachers and other public sector workers could follow. The medics - previously known as 'junior doctors' - are threatening to disrupt patient care despite seeing their pay jump by 28.9 per cent in just three years. They have crippled services by taking industrial action 11 times since 2022, forcing health bosses to cancel an estimated 1.5million appointments. It threatens to bring further misery on Chancellor Rachel Reeves who would have to raise taxes or cut services in order to meet the inflated pay demands. Health secretary Wes Streeting last year awarded resident doctors a 22.3 per cent pay deal with no strings attached - ignoring warnings that they would still hold him to ransom again this year. Ministers announced last week that most doctors would receive a 4 per cent pay rise following the latest review of public sector pay, with resident doctors to receive an extra £750 on top of the uplift. The increase, recommended by an independent pay review body, is above the rate of inflation, which jumped to 3.5 per cent in April, the highest since January 2024. Other NHS workers in England, including nurses, midwives and physiotherapists, will receive just a 3.6 per cent pay increase, effective from April 1. Professor Nicola Ranger, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, cited the success of previous doctors' strikes as she warned earlier this month that her members could 'bare our teeth' and take industrial in order to secure a 25 per cent rise. And the Nation Education Union, the largest union for teachers, has threatened to 'register a dispute' with the Government unless it fully funds the 4 per cent pay rise for teachers, part of which is currently due to be covered by existing school budgets. Other health unions are considering their options. Tory MP Edward Argar, the party's shadow health and social care secretary, said: 'We warned Labour that giving in to union demands on above-inflation pay rises with no strings attached last year would only see them coming back for more. 'Now we see the threat of a summer of discontent and a summer of strikes at risk of becoming a reality, with NHS staff on the picket line rather than the frontline. 'The Government bragged about their approach to pay deals last year and are now reaping the consequences. 'They need to get a grip and must urgently set out how these new pay deals will be funded without cutting services. 'Wes Streeting and Labour must face down union pressure by securing a fair, sustainable agreement for both workers and taxpayers. 'If they don't, it's patients and the public who will suffer.' Resident doctors in England today begin receiving their ballots, which could give the BMA a mandate for strike action from July this year to January 2026. Dennis Reed, director of Silver Voices, which campaigns for elderly patients, said: 'Here we are again with waiting lists still far too high, widespread strikes in the NHS being threatened, and with GPs and NHS dentists still listed as endangered species. 'Frontline staff continue to struggle to cover burgeoning vacancies. And all we have is promised strategies and long-term plans. 'Once again patients will be the collateral damage from the lack of radical action by Labour to sort out the NHS staffing crisis.' Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt, co-chairs of the BMA's Resident Doctors Committee. said: 'We are urging doctors to vote yes to strike action. By voting yes they will be telling the Government there is no alternative to fixing pay – this cannot wait for different fiscal circumstances and a healthier NHS. The answer is to fix it today.' Mr Streeting said: 'Within weeks of coming into office, I was determined to resolve the pay dispute and give resident doctors a substantial pay rise. 'That's now being followed by another above-inflation average pay award of 5.4 per cent. 'The result is that Resident Doctors have seen their pay increase by 28.9 per cent compared to three years ago. 'I want to work in partnership with resident doctors to deliver the change that the NHS is crying out for.'
Times
13-05-2025
- Health
- Times
Pay rise for doctors ‘may trigger NHS cuts and nurse walkouts'
Doctors are set to get a higher pay rise than nurses again as NHS bosses warn they will have to cut jobs and patient services to fund above-inflation increases in staff salaries. Ministers are optimistic they can prevent resident doctors going on strike again with a 'good offer' on pay and are in talks with the Treasury about how to fund an increase higher than others in the public sector. Resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, will also be promised changes in their training and working conditions as ministers seek to head off industrial action by showing they are sympathetic to staff concerns. However, doctors' leaders believe a rise of at least 5 per cent this year would be needed to show the government
Telegraph
06-05-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Wes Streeting: More junior doctor strikes will put NHS ‘in jeopardy'
More junior doctor strikes will put the future of the NHS in 'jeopardy', Wes Streeting has said. The British Medical Association (BMA) announced after a meeting with the Health Secretary on Friday that its doctors would vote on returning to the picket line. This comes less than 10 months after a 22 per cent pay rise and an agreement that the professionals would be referred to as 'resident doctors' as opposed to junior doctors. The BMA said it was asking members if they wanted to strike again after Mr Streeting would not commit to increasing their pay back to 2008 levels over the next two years. The Health Secretary suggested that the resident doctors' demands of a more than 10 per cent rise were unaffordable. He said the decision to vote on striking again was 'premature' and 'disappointing that the ballot for strike action is going out before they've received their pay offer'. Mr Streeting also said more disruption would keep the NHS in a state of 'jeopardy' and urged doctors to work with him rather than play into the hands of political opponents. 'Hold your horses' When asked what he would say to the doctors considering industrial action, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'We haven't made the pay offer yet, so I would just say to the BMA, hold your horses for a moment, wait until you get the pay offer. 'We know that the NHS is in jeopardy, not just because of the scale of the crisis we inherited, but because we have political opponents in Reform and the Conservative Party who do not even believe in the NHS. ' Nigel Farage said very clearly during the election campaign, he does not believe in a taxpayer-funded NHS.' He urged doctors to 'work with the party of the NHS to help us fix the NHS' and said this would happen 'if doctors are on the front line, not the picket line'. He noted during an interview with Times Radio that the resident doctors were asking for a pay rise of '8 or 9 per cent', plus inflation, which is currently at 2.6 per cent. The Health Secretary added: 'I can't honestly say we'll be able to deliver that year-on-year.' Mr Streeting added that when the doctors 'receive their pay offer, they will see this is a Government that is moving their pay, their conditions and their career progression in the right direction'. On Friday, the BMA said three weeks had passed since it warned the Government of the 'consequences of the absence of a reasonable, timely pay offer' for 2025-26. Its ballot for industrial action will open on May 27 and close on July 7.
