BMA presses on with strike plan, despite reopening conciliatory talks

In a U-turn, the government consented to enter negotiations regarding the threatened junior doctors strike, after Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt last week refused the BMA’s offer on talks.

Dr Mark Porter, GP and medical correspondent for The Times, said the government’s agreement to enter conciliation talks was ‘encouraging’ and that the BMA was willing to enter talks ‘as soon as possible’.

However, Porter warned the strike would not be called off until the government removed the threat of a contract imposition. In fact, the BMA has concluded it would only enter negotiations if the Department of Health could assure that a new contract would not be imposed, and that safeguards around working hours remained and that no junior doctors suffered pay cuts as a result of the changes.

However, the government has  been resistant to give such guarantees.

In a bid to stave off this action, Hunt wrote: “Patient safety has been my absolute priority through my tenure as health secretary.

The extreme action planned in December poses a serious threat to that safety.

“Whilst I believe the right thing to do is to return to the negotiating table directly, it is very clear that any talks are better than strikes, so in the first instance I am very happy for my officials and NHS Employers to commence those talks during ACAS conciliation services.”

Responding to the letter, Dr Mark Porter said: “It is encouraging that Jeremy Hunt has made a significant shift in accepting the BMA’s offer of conciliatory talks through Acas, finally recognising the fact that trust has broken down between junior doctors and the government.

“However, junior doctors and the public, who by now will be used to Jeremy Hunt’s political game playing, will not be surprised by the fact that he has waited until now to do the right thing.

“We hope to start these talks as soon as possible in order to reach a collaborative agreement for the benefit of patients and the NHS. Importantly, Jeremy Hunt must finally remove his threat of imposition in order to defer Tuesday’s industrial action.”

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