Wes Streeting thought he had struck a deal with resident doctors to stop a five-day strike in England, only for the British Medical Association to then reject it, sources have claimed.
The health secretary believed he had secured a verbal agreement with the co-chairs of the BMA’s resident doctors committee for a deal that involved progress on tackling five non-pay issues.
Whitehall sources say Ross Nieuwoudt and Melissa Ryan decided the agreement made during face-to-face talks last Tuesday was enough for the suspension of the strike, which started on Friday.
The deal would have involved resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – getting access to hot meals when working overnight, having some exam fees paid, receiving funding for equipment such as stethoscopes and getting mess rooms and changes to the way their postgraduate training was organised.
But when Nieuwoudt and Ryan relayed the potential deal to the full committee, they were told they could not approve it because it did not address the BMA’s demand that resident doctors receive a 29% pay rise over the next few years.
“They were told by the committee that they could only talk about pay and none of this soft stuff matters. Wes was furious. They had come incredibly close to a deal,” a source said.
Resident doctors in England receive basic pay of between £38,831 and £73,992, with extra payments worth up to 15% of their salaries for working at weekends.
The failure to reach a deal underlines the gulf between the BMA and Streeting. He has refused to reopen negotiations over the 5.4% salary increase he has given resident doctors this year. But the union is adamant it will call off industrial action only if he agrees to talk money.
The BMA denied that it was responsible for the failure to strike a deal and blamed Streeting. A spokesperson said: “We cannot be clearer: it was the government that ended the talks. Resident doctors do not want to strike. However, we have been compelled to take action because Mr Streeting’s ultimatum, which demanded we call off strikes in exchange for nothing more than further talks was simply not acceptable.
“We want to continue our negotiations with Mr Streeting and strongly urge him to get back around the table with a serious proposal, rather than a handful of platitudes.”
NHS bosses warn the strikes could “snowball” and even continue into next year. They fear that nurses, consultant doctors and other NHS staff might stage strikes too.
Sir Jim Mackey, the chief executive of NHS England, told the Sunday Times: “We know that continued disruption over the coming months could see a snowball effect for patients and for staff. We’ve seen that before and it has take a huge effort over the last year to build momentum back up on reducing waiting lists and times.”
His deputy, David Probert, the chief executive of University College London hospitals trust, told the same paper: “This could be a marathon. We could be doing this until Christmas or maybe beyond.”
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The BMA’s 55,000 resident doctor members have a legal mandate to take strike action for six months, until 6 January.
Kemi Badenoch has pledged to outlaw strikes by doctors, bringing them into line with the police and army, if she becomes prime minister. “Doctors hold lives in their hands. No one should lose critical healthcare because of strikes but that’s what’s happening now,” the opposition leader posted on X on Sunday.
“That’s why a Conservative government led by me would ban doctors’ strikes, just like we do the army and police.”
Streeting said in a statement: “I want to thank staff across the NHS for the massive shift they’ve put in this weekend to minimise the disruption to patients.
“I particularly want to thank resident doctors who didn’t take part in these strikes and went into work to help their colleagues and patients.
“We will continue to work with staff from the frontline to the command centre to reduce the impact on patients of these completely unnecessary strikes.”
