Steve Barclay says medical doctors’ pay demand is ‘unreasonable’

Health Secretary Steve Barclay accused junior medical doctors of being unreasonable by refusing to budge on their demand for a 35 % pay rise.

Mr Barclay mentioned yesterday there must be “movement on all sides”.

He mentioned: “They’ve refused to move from the 35 percent. And I don’t think that is a fair and reasonable demand for them to take.

“We want to engage with them, we have been doing. It’s the junior doctors who walked away from those negotiations by calling strikes.”

Junior medical doctors are set to stroll out for 72 hours in June after pay talks stalled. It would be the third time junior medical doctors in England have staged strikes this yr following industrial motion in March and April.

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The Health Secretary insisted the federal government had already improved its pay supply from what was initially really helpful by the impartial pay evaluation physique.

Ministers provided a 5 % pay rise however Dr Vivek Trivedi, who co-chairs the British Medical Association Junior Doctors Committee, mentioned this might quantity to “a massive real-terms pay cut” due to rising costs.

He mentioned: “It was clear that after the government offered us their five percent…They were the ones who wouldn’t budge.”

Discussing resolving the dispute, Dr Trivedi mentioned: “We’re eager and ready to get back to the negotiating table. The Government are refusing to meet us there.

“We have budged and are very happy to explore ways to fully restore our doctor’s pay and we’ve come up with a variety of proposals to do that.”

The BMA says junior medical doctors have seen pay lower by 26 % since 2008 as soon as inflation – the speed costs are rising – is taken into account.

Dr Trivedi mentioned a pay supply which didn’t reverse this trajectory “would not be fair or reasonable”.

Mr Barclay mentioned he won’t renegotiate pay with nurses, including it could not be “legally possible”.

The Royal College of Nursing is balloting nearly 30,000 members on whether or not to take additional strike motion.

Mr Barclay mentioned they “had a very constructive meeting this week” – however described what was provided beforehand and accepted by the NHS Staff Council as a “full and final” supply.

This supply amounted to a 5 % pay rise, plus a money top-up.

Mr Barclay mentioned: “It means a band six, entry-level nurse gets over £5,000 over the two years.

“It’s not possible to give a band six nurse different pay to a band six midwife or a band six paramedic.”