Resident doctors have squandered the “considerable goodwill” they had with government after staging five days of strikes across England, the Health Secretary has said.
Wes Streeting said he “never left” the negotiating table, and that he is willing to meet with the resident doctors committee of the British Medical Association (BMA) to resume talks in their ongoing dispute over pay and working conditions.
The Cabinet minister said following previous talks, he had outlined a package that “could bring an end to this dispute”, but he accused the union of “rushing” to strike.
In a letter to BMA resident doctors committee co-chairs Dr Ross Nieuwoudt and Dr Melissa Ryan, Mr Streeting said: “Thank you for your letter of 29 July inviting me to get back to the negotiation table, which is ironic because I never left.
“I am ready to continue the conversation from where you left it.
“As I made clear last week, the decision taken by your committee to proceed with strike action over the past five days was deeply disappointing and entirely unnecessary given the seemingly promising discussions we had to explore areas where we could make substantive improvements to doctors’ working lives.
“My letter to your committee, drafted following extensive engagement with you both, outlined a path to agreeing a package that could bring an end to this dispute.
“Had you and your committee not rushed to strike, we would be in the second of the 3 weeks I asked for to work intensively together to improve the working lives of your members.”
Mr Streeting acknowledged a second dispute raised by the BMA about a lack of training places for doctors, but said this could have been “avoided”.
He went on: “The consequences of your strike action have been a detrimental impact on patients, your members, your colleagues and the NHS, which might have been worse were it not for the considerable efforts of NHS leaders and front-line staff who stepped up.
“Your action has also been self-defeating, because you have squandered the considerable goodwill you had with me and this government.
“I cannot in good conscience let patients, or other NHS staff, pay the price for the costs of your decision.”
He reiterated that the government “cannot move on pay”, but is “prepared to negotiate on areas related to your conditions at work, career progression and tangible measures which would put money in your members’ pockets”.
Mr Streeting added: “My door remains open to the hope that we can still build the partnership with resident doctors I aspired to when I came in a year ago and, in that spirit, I am happy to meet with you early next week.”
In a statement, the co-chairs of the committee said: “Resident doctors want this to have been their last strike. We are asking Mr Streeting to leave the political rhetoric behind and put the future of the NHS first.
“He could have prevented strike action if he had made a credible offer last week, instead of what we got: the offer of more talks. Now is the time to get serious.
“We’re glad to hear Mr Streeting is open to new talks. Let’s make them count.”
Details on the number of appointments, procedures and operations postponed as a result are expected to be published later this week.
It is expected that fewer patients were affected compared to previous strikes after hospitals were ordered to press ahead with as much pre-planned care as possible during the walkout across England, which ended at 7am on Wednesday.
In previous walkouts, the majority of non-urgent care was postponed.
Strikes across various NHS staff groups between 2022 and 2024 led to 1.5 million cancellations.
And hospital leaders said that fewer resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, took to picket lines in the latest walkout compared to those which took place previously.
NHS officials have said cancelled bookings would be rescheduled within two weeks, but warned of knock-on impacts for other patients.
