Junior Doctors Announce Fresh Strike Action After Rejecting Pay Offer – NATIONAL NEWS

Junior doctors will stage fresh strikes next month after rejecting a government pay offer that ministers said would have pushed some medics’ earnings above £100,000.

The British Medical Association held talks on Wednesday with James Murray, who earlier this month replaced Wes Streeting as Health Secretary, following 15 previous rounds of industrial action.

Junior doctors, now formally referred to as resident doctors, have already taken part in more than 60 days of strikes over the past three years, with disruption estimated to have cost the NHS more than £3 billion.

Ministers said the latest pay package rejected by the BMA would have left junior doctors 35 per cent better off than they were four years ago.

Under the proposed deal, the most senior junior doctors would have seen their basic pay rise to £77,348, with average earnings climbing above £100,000 once additional hours and overtime were included.

Doctors at the beginning of their training would have earned an average of £52,000 this financial year, including extra hours, under a proposed 4.9 per cent pay increase.

The government had also offered an additional 4,000 specialist training places to help doctors progress more quickly through the NHS. The first 1,000 posts were due to be introduced in August at a cost of £18.5 million, but officials now say the expansion will not go ahead this year because of time and funding pressures.

Industrial action by junior doctors has cost the NHS enough to fund around 1.5 million operations or 15 million outpatient appointments.

Last month, Sir Jim Mackey, chief executive of NHS England, warned hospital leaders to prepare for a “long slog”, saying he feared another year of disruption. He urged NHS trusts to plan for a prolonged period of strikes and suggested the health service could look to reduce its reliance on doctors in training if walkouts continued.

The dispute began more than three years ago, with the first strikes taking place in March 2023.

Meanwhile, the BMA is also facing industrial action from its own non-medical staff, who have launched strikes after rejecting a 2.75 per cent pay rise offered by the union.