Patients are BMA's hostages as Labour is held to ransom

RARELY would I agree with Health Secretary Wes Streeting on anything, but he is right when he says that further strikes by doctors will choke the recovery of the NHS. He is also fully entitled to feel exasperated with the behaviour of the British Medical Association, the doctors' union, and its latest decision to ballot their members over more strikes.

- Duncan Barkes

The BMA has the Government in a bind and is hellbent on tightening the screws. Last year, Labour awarded junior doctors, whom we must now call resident doctors, a decent 22.3% pay increase.

This ended the industrial action that had ushered in 11 walkouts since 2022, and which resulted in an estimated 1.5million appointments being cancelled, with patients waiting even longer for their much-needed treatment.

Last month, the Government accepted salary recommendations from pay review bodies that would have resulted in an average 5.4% rise for resident doctors. But the BMA are far from happy with that, despite it being the most generous pay award in the NHS. For context, consultants received 4%, while nurses and other healthcare staff on Agenda for Change contracts were given 3.6%.

A full-time resident doctor's average starting salary will now be around £38,800, up from about £29,400 in 2022-23. With last year's deal, Mr Streeting points out that resident doctors have been handed an increase of 28.9% over three years, which is far from unjust.