Health Secretary Wes Streeting will meet representatives from the British Medical Association (BMA) for talks in an effort to avoid planned strike action, it has been reported.
Earlier this week, the BMA announced resident doctors – formerly junior doctors – in England would walk out for five consecutive days from 7am on July 25 amid a pay dispute with the Government.
The BBC says discussions will take place next week, with the BMA telling the broadcaster industrial action would only be called off if it receives an offer it can put to its members.
Mr Streeting is reportedly sympathetic to improving working conditions for doctors, but will not budge on salaries.
Reacting to the BMA announcement on Wednesday, Mr Streeting called the move “completely unreasonable” and urged the union to “abandon their rush to strike”, while health chiefs warned strikes are “unfair to patients”.
Mr Streeting told the Commons on Thursday: “We have put the NHS on the road to recovery, but we all know that the NHS is still hanging by a thread, and that the BMA is threatening to pull it.”
TV doctor and IVF pioneer Professor Robert Winston resigned from the BMA following the strike announcement, writing in The Times: “I’ve paid my membership for a long time. I feel very strongly that this isn’t the time to be striking.
“I think that the country is really struggling in all sorts of ways, people are struggling in all sorts of ways.
“Strike action completely ignores the vulnerability of people in front of you.”
He urged the union to reconsider, saying it is “important that doctors consider their own responsibility much more seriously”, and stressed that the walkout could cause “long-term damage” to people’s faith in doctors.
Some 90% of voting resident doctors backed the strike action, with the BMA reporting a turnout of 55%.
The union has said that resident doctors need a pay uplift of 29.2% to reverse “pay erosion” since 2008/09.
In September, BMA members voted to accept a government pay deal worth 22.3% on average over two years.
The 2025/26 pay deal saw resident doctors given a 4% uplift plus £750 “on a consolidated basis” – working out as an average pay rise of 5.4%.
The BMA call for a 29.2% uplift is based on Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation, the measure of average changes in the price of goods and services used by most households.
The BMA has been contacted for comment.
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