Junior doctors strike: NHS chief calls on Acas to help with talks

The NHS chief said the government and doctors’ unions should call in matchmaking service Akas for talks ahead of “extremely worrying” strikes this week.

Junior doctors in England will stage a four-day strike from Tuesday – perhaps the most disruptive in NHS history.

Matthew Taylor of the NHS Confederation told the BBC around 350,000 appointments and procedures could be cancelled.

The strike is part of a bitter dispute over wages and follows last month’s action.

The British Medical Association wants a 35% pay rise for junior doctors. It says the increase will offset 15 years of below-inflationary wage increases that have caused a hiring and retention crisis.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said on Saturday the demand was “unrealistic” and not in line with wage settlements in other parts of the public sector, but the BMA said Barclay had not yet brought a serious offer to the table.

The strike involving thousands of doctors is scheduled to take place from 07:00 GMT on Tuesday until 07:00 on Saturday, with the strike across both planned and emergency care.

Speaking to the BBC, Taylor, whose body represents the NHS Trusts, said the government and unions needed to call in mediators to help push forward the talks.

“It is sad that there appears to have been no movement at all on either side of this dispute over the past few days,” Taylor said.

“We should consider asking the government and trade unions to call up Acas, the conciliation service, to provide some basis for negotiations, because if anything, attitudes seem to have hardened over the past two days.”

He said the intervention of the public body was necessary to avoid further strikes.

Taylor also described the impact of the strike by thousands of junior doctors as “tremendous”.

“These services are stretched and there is no doubt that there will be a risk to patient safety, there will be a risk to patient dignity because we are not able to provide the kind of care that we want.”

He added, “It’s a very worrying situation… The leaders I’ve spoken to over the last few days are really concerned.”

“Now for us to have this situation where these waiting lists are going to get so long, and work being cancelled, and not being able to guarantee the standard of care that you want to provide – well, that’s heartbreaking for an NHS leader.”

Acas, which receives government funding, has recently been involved in mediation of Royal Mail and higher education industrial disputes.

Can play a neutral role in helping to sort things out when there is a disagreement between the employer and the group of employees.

Writing in The Telegraph on Saturday, the health secretary said: “We cannot, however, negotiate until the BMA confirms it will stop striking next week and move substantially from its 35% position.

“Without that, I unfortunately see no prospect of entering into serious and constructive talks.”

But Dr Mike Greenhalgh, co-vice-chairman of the BMA’s Junior Doctors Committee, told the BBC over the weekend: “It’s hard to negotiate when only one side is doing it and we’re not getting anything from the government on that front.”

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) declined to comment on Acas’ call to intervene, but said it was working with NHS England to put in place contingency plans to protect patient safety.

Miriam Deakin, director of policy and strategy for NHS Providers which represents hospital services, said the BBC’s health leaders were “extremely concerned” about the impact of the strike on patient care and safety.

She told BBC Radio 4’s World at One there would be “intense pressure on critical life-sustaining services” and called on both sides in the conflict to “step back from the brink”.

The Bahrain Monetary Agency refused to make any exceptions for any services, unlike the nurses and paramedics unions that agreed to some exceptions in their recent strikes. But the British Medical Association said plans were in place to withdraw junior doctors from the picket line if lives were in danger.

The organisation’s co-chair Dr Vivek Trivdi told the BBC that striking doctors would return to work in the event of a major incident, but said no official request had been made for an agreed list of circumstances in which the measure would be paused by the government.

Mental health, maternity and some GP services are also expected to be affected.

Some GP surgeries are suspending routine appointments for up to a week due to strikes, according to The Telegraph.

While emergency care was provided by consultants during the strike, many planned and non-urgent treatments were rescheduled.

Junior doctors make up nearly half of England’s medical workforce, and include those who have just graduated from university, and even some with 10 years’ experience.

Two-thirds of junior doctors are members of the Medical Association.

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