06.05.16
BMA confirm they are re-entering talks with government
Junior doctors’ representatives have agreed to suspend the threat of strike action for five days and re-enter talks with the government in order to try to break the impasse over a controversial new contract.
The British Medical Association (BMA) confirmed it has accepted health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s new offer to suspend the imposition of the contract for five days, starting from Monday, if they agree to return to the negotiating table.
The bitter dispute has led to five strikes so far and the threat of indefinite strike action as both sides refuse to compromise.
Dr Johann Malawana, chair of the BMA junior doctors’ committee, said: “Junior doctors have said since the outset that we want to reach a negotiated agreement, and have repeatedly urged the government to re-enter talks.
“As suggested by the Academy, we are keen to restart talks with an open mind. It is critical to find a way forward on all the outstanding issues - which are more than just pay - and hope that a new offer is made that can break the impasse.”
Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, welcomed the announcement, saying: “It is important now that both sides of this impasse seek to resolve their differences. There is now a joint responsibility for both organisations to stop this deadlock now. Both sides have a duty to put patients and the public first.
“This is brave and the right thing for both sides to do. There have been no winners in this ongoing dispute, and it’s patients who have been the losers.”
However, in a House of Lords debate yesterday, Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Walmsley said that the talks were “really rather too late”, adding: “The Secretary of State has already lost the trust not only of junior doctors but of a very large percentage of the general public. It has to be said that the BMA has also lost the trust of a certain percentage of the public.”
In an exclusive article for NHE last week, Emeritus Professor W Angus Wallace warned that the dispute is in danger of destroying the NHS as we know it.
(Image c. Ben Birchall from PA Wire/ Press Association Images)
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