Doctor strikes could last until 2025, senior medic warns

Dr Phil Banfield, chairman of council at the British Medical Association, says relations between profession and government are at lowest ebb in thirty years

Strike action by doctors could last until 2025, a senior medic has warned as figures show nearly 650,000 appointments and operations have been postponed since a wave of industrial action over pay and conditions broke out last year.

Dr Phil Banfield, chairman of council at the British Medical Association (BMA), said there has been a “loss of trust” between the profession and ministers, adding relations were at their lowest ebb in three decades.

Junior doctors, who are asking for a 35 per cent pay rise, will later this month walkout in the largest strike in NHS’s history, with significant disruption expected across the health service. The five-day strike from 13-18 July will take place just days after the NHS’s 75th anniversary.

Consultants - the most senior doctors in the NHS – are planning to stage industrial action for the first time in 50 years on 20-21, where they will only provide scaled-back “Christmas day cover”.

They are also asking for a 35 per cent hike. Both junior doctors and consultants say they have seen huge real-terms cuts to their pay since 2008-9 and want ministers to restitute their salaries.

Steve Barclay, the health secretary, has described the doctors’ demands as unreasonable but last night signalled a willingness by government to offer a bigger pay rise, although refused to restart talks with consultants while strikes were planned.

“I don’t think a 35 per cent pay demand, which they refuse to move away from, is reasonable given the headwinds we face from inflation,” the told The Times, insisting that there needed to be movement on “both sides” for negotiations to continue.

Talks with the BMA’s junior doctor committee broke down after the government’s pay offer of 5 per cent was rejected.

Dr Banfield said it is an "absolute travesty" that doctors feel they have no other choice than to take strike action.

He urged ministers to enter talks, saying the government’s precondition to not get round the table when strikes are planned is a "completely artificial red line".

The medic warned that doctors could strike "to the next general election - and beyond" as he called for the government to enter talks through the conciliation service Acas.

"The loss of trust that has happened between this government and the medical profession I’ve never seen before," he said.

"We’ve asked for multiple meetings and because of the dispute, they have been declined.

"It’s really sad for the NHS to be in this state.

Junior doctors are due to strike again for five days in July over pay and conditions (Lucy North/PA) (PA Wire)

"It is a complete fallacy that to solve the doctors dispute is unaffordable, it costs more to not fix it than to fix it.

"It is an absolute travesty that we’re in the position where doctors feel that there is no alternative but to take strike action."

The first mass walkout of nurses in history took place in mid-December – with ambulance workers, physiotherapists and other health professionals following suit in subsequent weeks.

In March this year, junior doctors began the first in a wave of strikes, heaping further disruption on the health service.

Some 648,000 appointments, procedures and operations have been postponed as a result of the strikes in England.

Some medic unions settled pay disputes with the government aftr the NHS Staff Council voted to accept a revised pay offer for staff of the Agenda for Change contract – including paramedics, nurses and physiotherapists.

This meant that staff on the contract – which includes more than a million NHS workers – saw a bump in their pay packet at the end of June.

The new offer represented a 5 per cent pay rise this year and a cash sum for last year for the majority of staff on the contract – which includes all NHS workers apart from doctors, dentists and very senior managers.