Striking doctors urge Streeting to restore their pay

RESIDENT doctors on the picket line in Newcastle hit out at Wes Streeting for refusing to continue to “restore” pay.

- SAM VOLPE Health Reporter sam.volpe@reachplccom

Medics outside the Royal Victoria Infirmary said the Health Secretary had previously referred to their call for “full pay restoration” as a journey ~ but was now not taking steps to follow through on this.

Dr Harry Waterman, a member of the British Medical Association’s resident doctor committee in the North, explained that he and his colleagues had been disappointed by the lack of “productive” talks with Mr Streeting.

He said: “Unfortunately our negotiations with Streeting haven’t been productive and we have not seen meaningful progress towards restoring our pay.

“We have obviously agreed a deal previously [in 2024] but that was on the understanding that we would continue the journey to restoring our pay - something even Streeting himself openly admitted is a reasonably thing to want.

“We've always been transparent that we want to take that next step, but unfortunately we've not seen that from Government so this is where we have ended up.

“It's always a last resort to take strike action, but we've been left with no other choice.”

The BMA has highlighted again that doctors’ pay has fallen significantly in real terms since 2008 and, despite the pay deal agreed in September 2024, remains more than 20% down compared to that point 17 years ago.