Doctors have warned the health secretary Wes Streeting that there must be “less name-calling and more deal-making” to avoid another round of damaging NHS strikes in 2026.
The BMA pressed ahead with a five-day walkout last week after it rejected an offer from the government that did not include improved pay.
In the run-up to the industrial action, the health secretary had condemned the resident doctors’ union, the British Medical Association (BMA), as “self-indulgent” and “dangerous”, accusing them of “juvenile delinquency”, amid surging flu rates.
Mr Streeting has said he wants to end the dispute and that ministers will resume discussions with the BMA in the new year.
As the strike came to an end, he also said he was concerned about the coming days.
Mr Streeting told The Observer on Sunday: “The period that worries me … is the post-strike period when we have to try and recover the service. That now falls at a time of year which is the NHS’s busiest.”
The BMA said it was now asking the health secretary to enter new talks with a “constructive spirit”.
The chair of the resident doctors committee, Dr Jack Fletcher, said: “2026 must see less name-calling and more deal-making. 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.”
He added: “The tone of the conversations we had at the eleventh hour before these strikes was 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.”
Resident doctors are being asked to ballot for six months’ more industrial action.
Mr Streeting said that the “double whammy” of strike action and flu had posed the most serious threat to the NHS since he took the job.
He thanked all the NHS staff who kept services running through an “exceptionally challenging” month, saying that they had made a “real difference”.
He added: “I do not want to see a single day of industrial action in the NHS in 2026 and will 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.”
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