LONDON (Reuters) -A planned five-day junior doctors’ strike in England will go ahead this week, their trade union announced on Tuesday, saying health minister Wes Streeting had not gone far enough in negotiations over pay and conditions.
Junior doctors, also known as resident doctors, had voted to strike following the government’s award of a 5.4% pay rise. The union argues this falls far short of the 29% needed to restore their earnings to 2008 levels.
The strikes will begin at 0600 GMT on Friday.
Talks with Streeting and government officials over the last few days to reach a compromise have not seen a breakthrough, the British Medical Association (BMA) said in a statement.
“What we have seen so far is a series of ‘no’s – no to movement on pay, no to student loan forgiveness, no to any credible move forwards,” BMA co-chairs Melissa Ryan and Ross Nieuwoudt said in a statement.
“What we need to see are some ways forward, some kind of positive approach to get us out of this dispute.”
Streeting said the strikes would disrupt patient care and put additional pressure on the state-run National Health Service.
“The BMA would have lost nothing by taking up the offer to postpone strike action to negotiate a package that would improve the working lives of resident doctors,” Streeting said in an emailed statement.
The BMA co-chairs said their door remained open, but added “we don’t accept we can’t talk about pay.”
(Reporting by Catarina Demony and Sam Tabahriti, writing by Muvija M, editing by William James)
