November strike day in Sheffield Photo: Alistair Tice
November strike day in Sheffield Photo: Alistair Tice

‘The government wants to divide and conquer rather than work with us to improve the NHS’

Resident doctors in England, members of the British Medical Association (BMA), are set to strike from 7-13 April, following a massive 93% ‘yes’ vote.

The BMA says that in negotiations with the Labour government, it became clear that the money proposed for pay increases was intended to be spread over three years. The pay review body has recommended a below-inflation rise of 3.5%.

Once again, a barrage of hostile propaganda is raining down on them, from the right-wing press and Labour health secretary Wes Streeting. That makes it all the more significant that polls show that there is still 50% support for the doctors among the public.

Disgracefully, Starmer is even threatening not to open up new training jobs – he’s prepared to sacrifice the NHS in his fight against the doctors!

A Sheffield resident doctor comments

“The pay deal means that resident doctors wouldn’t get full pay restoration for 12 years.

“The deal is also very vague on an increase in training jobs. Wes Streeting has sent out a letter to all the resident doctors alongside the deal that was offered. It mentions that there will be 4,500 new training posts and that an ‘advisory group’ will be set up to distribute these. But the issue is that the lack of jobs exists at every level, from consultant down to FY1 (first year foundation), so this will just make bottlenecks at the top worse.

“The deal is also filled with odd talk about ‘productivity’ and lots of talk about asking first and second year resident doctors expanding their job role. From my reading of it, this makes the pay offer seem linked to performance in non-medical or clinical roles.

“Many of us are increasingly frustrated with the government, which never seems to put the interests of the NHS and the public at the heart of the conversation. We also want the BMA to campaign more strongly on jobs and funding.

“The government just wants to divide and conquer resident doctors rather than work with us to help improve the NHS.”