Labour’s shadow health secretary has said the party would offer doctors ‘the pay they deserve’, suggesting it would look to negotiate a deal that would end the strikes.
According to The Times, Wes Streeting told a Labour Party Conference fringe event that a future government would be “willing to negotiate” with the British Medical Association (BMA) over doctors’ pay, but could not promise it would be able to meet the union’s demands.
He said: “I don’t see a way to address the recruitment and retention crisis in the NHS and in social care which doesn’t involve giving people the respect, the conditions and the pay they deserve. One of the reasons we didn’t have any national strikes in the NHS under the last Labour government is because we treated staff with respect. We worked with staff in partnership.”
Doctors’ pay demands
Consultants offer ‘olive branch’ on strikes
Joint doctors strikes cause disruption ‘unlike anything before’
Streeting said that year-on-year pay rises implemented during Labour’s last tenure had “delivered pay restoration”, following “eerily similar demands” from unions before the 1997 election.
The BMA, which has not currently scheduled any further strike action, wants the government to restore doctors’ pay to 2008 levels.
The government has maintained that it will not enter into further pay negotiations with doctors’ unions. Earlier this year junior doctors in England received 6% and a £1,250 consolidated increase, while consultants, GPs and dentists in England were awarded 6%.
Last month, Streeting said a Labour government would not be able to meet the BMA’s demands for a 35% pay increase for junior doctors, telling GB News that it is “not a policy that Labour will be able to afford”.
“But I will be willing to sit down and negotiate with the doctors, to say look I recognise the pressure you are under, what can we do to help you with the cost of living?” he said.
Consultants are seeking an 11% pay increase.
Professor Philip Banfield, head of the BMA council, told the conference’s fringe event that the government would need to negotiate with all groups of doctors, not just consultants or junior doctors.
He said: “Trying to settle with one group of doctors, and picking off one branch of practice, does not solve the underlying dispute and it does not resolve the issue, which is about how do you restore the value?”
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
HR opportunities in Healthcare on Personnel Today
Browse more HR opportunities in healthcare
