Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the offer to junior doctors and consultants was “fair and reasonable” while balancing the “need to keep inflation in check”. “We will not negotiate again on this year’s settlements and no amount of strikes will change our decision,” he told a press conference on Thursday. In a direct message to the public sector unions, the Conservative Party leader said the pay on offer was as far as he would go. Mr Sunak said on Twitter that his Government will “not be bullied” into “unrealistic” pay demands which he argued risked higher inflation. Hospital consultants, set to strike in England next week, will receive a 6% rise. He is offering junior doctors, currently taking part in their longest walkout yet in England, 6% rises, along with an additional consolidated £1,250 increase. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has insisted that the pay awards are “final” offers to public sector workers who are striking. I do believe that doctors are in this for the long run because we are seeing so much harm come to patients every day because of the underfunding of the NHS.”
“So I don’t believe that this is all over. “It’s equally possible that a UK Government with higher access to funds could make that kind of negotiation possible as well,” Prof Banfield said.
He pointed to the Scottish Government’s offer of a 12.4% increase for junior doctors this year compared to around half that being offered to those in England, who are due to take part in the second of a planned five-day stretch of industrial action on Friday. Professor Philip Banfield, the association’s council chairman, told LBC the chances of further doctor walkouts were “very high”. The British Medical Association (BMA) has warned the Government that “doctors are in this for the long run” as it refused to call off strikes following the announcement that the Prime Minister had accepted the recommendations of independent pay review bodies. Ministers and unions continue to face off over public sector pay as junior doctors prepare to strike for a second day despite being made a 6% “final” offer salary rise.
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