Resident doctors have said they will approach talks with Wes Streeting with a “can-do spirit” to avoid further strikes in the new year, as their five-day action ended on Monday morning.
The British Medical Association called on the health secretary to come to the table with the same “constructive” attitude, saying the tone of 11th-hour talks before their stoppage had been encouraging but too late to avoid the strike in England.
Streeting also signalled his determination to get back to the talks, saying he did “not want to see a single day of industrial action in the NHS in 2026”, and that he would “be doing everything I can to make this a reality”.
“My door remains open, as it always has done, and I’m determined to resume discussions with the BMA in the new year to put an end to these damaging cycles of disruption,” he said.
Streeting and Keir Starmer have taken a tough line towards the strike, with the prime minister saying it was “beyond belief” that it should go ahead when the flu-hit NHS was facing its worst crisis since Covid.
Andrea Egan, who will take over as the new general secretary of Unison next year, has said it was unacceptable for Streeting to say the strike was “morally reprehensible”. The health secretary has also accused the BMA of acting like a cartel.
However, Streeting and the BMA appeared to be taking a more conciliatory tone as the five-day strike came to an end.
Talks between the government and the BMA have repeatedly broken down in recent months, with Streeting unwilling to reopen pay negotiations and doctors demanding “pay restoration” to the level of 2008 in real terms.
Instead, Streeting offered a deal to create more training places to end the crisis of qualified doctors being unable to find jobs after graduating. However, this offer was refused by BMA resident doctors, who voted to go ahead with the strike from Wednesday last week until 7am on Monday.
Appealing for “less name calling and more deal making” in 2026, Jack Fletcher, the chair of the resident doctors committee, said: “What we need is a proper fix to this jobs crisis and a credible path towards restoring the lost value of the profession. That must mean the creation of genuinely new jobs, and it could involve a responsible multi-year approach to restoring doctors’ pay.
“Those are solutions that mean we can build out our future workforce to end the current crisis, solutions which are very much within government’s power.”
He added: “Doctors are frustrated by the year that has just passed. There have been plenty of opportunities for strike action to have been avoided but all too often the government has moved too little and too late.
“Nevertheless, the tone of the conversations we had at the 11th hour before these strikes were cause for optimism that the government is finally understanding the frustrations of resident doctors in England. We are going into the new year with a renewed can-do spirit, and we hope Mr Streeting will do the same.”
Earlier, the health secretary said the NHS had been coping with the strike even though it coincided with flu season, but he was concerned about the recovery period afterwards.
On Monday morning, Streeting said the “double whammy of strike action and flu this December posed the most serious threat to the NHS” since the election.
“The health service has only been able to cope because of the extraordinary efforts of the dedicated staff who work in it, and the hardest yards are in the weeks ahead as we get the NHS through the busiest weeks of the year,” he said.
“To everyone who played a role in keeping NHS services running through this exceptionally challenging month, thank you for the real difference you have made.”
