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Jeremy Hunt willing to pause imposition of junior doctors' contract Jeremy Hunt offers to pause imposition of junior doctors' contract
(about 1 hour later)
The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, is willing to pause the imposition of the junior doctors’ contract to allow further talks, peers have been told. Jeremy Hunt has said he is willing to pause the imposition of a new contract on junior doctors for five days to allow further talks, providing the BMA agrees to negotiate on Saturday pay.
The health minister Lord Prior’s offer, made in the House of Lords on Thursday, came with the caveat that the BMA must be willing to focus on the outstanding contractual issues, including Saturday pay. The health secretary’s offer, revealed by the health minister Lord Prior in the House of Lords on Thursday, came after a plea from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges for a five-day truce to allow the doctors’ union and ministers to try to reach agreement on outstanding issues and avoid further walkouts. In response to Hunt’s offer, the BMA said it was “keen to restart talks with an open mind”.
His comments came after a plea from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges for a five-day truce to allow the doctors’ union and ministers to try to reach agreement on outstanding issues and so avoid further walkouts. Hunt said: “This is a significant show of good faith by the government to break the deadlock. We now need the BMA to agree to negotiate on Saturday pay, the biggest single area of difference, in order for the talks to proceed.”
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Answering a question in the Lords, Prior said such a pause would provide an opportunity to try to find a solution to the dispute and that Hunt would be writing to the academy on Thursday. The BMA had already said, in response to the academy’s initiative, that it was prepared to hold off calling further strikes to enable fresh talks to take place.
He said Hunt would explain “we are willing to pause introduction of the new contract for five days from Monday should the junior doctors committee agree to focus discussion on the outstanding contractual issues – namely unsocial hours and Saturday pay”. After Hunt’s offer, Dr Johann Malawana, the BMA’s junior doctor chair, said: “Junior doctors have said since the outset that we want to reach a negotiated agreement, and have repeatedly urged the government to re-enter talks.
The BMA had already said it was prepared to hold off calling further strikes to enable fresh talks to take place with the government. “As suggested by the academy, we are keen to restart talks with an open mind. It is critical to find a way forward on all the outstanding issues – which are more than just pay – and hope that a new offer is made that can break the impasse.”
The intervention by the academy came ahead of a BMA junior doctors committee meeting on Saturday when they are due to discuss ways of ramping up industrial action, including an indefinite walkout or mass resignation. Hunt has written to Dame Sue Bailey, the chair of the academy, to detail the terms of the offer. He writes that the government remains committed to the introduction of the new contract in August but offers to pause imposition for five days from Monday to return to talks if his conditions are met.
The BMA had previously refused to return to the negotiating table unless the government lifted the threat of imposition, while the Department of Health said the doctor’s union must be prepared to discuss Saturday pay, which it described as the one remaining issue separating the two sides. He writes: “The JDC [junior doctors committee] have previously backed away from their own written agreement made through Acas to negotiate on unsocial hours and Saturday pay.
“In the light of this I hope you can agree with our position that any talks should not proceed unless we have written agreement from the JDC that they will agree to negotiate substantively and in good faith on this single biggest outstanding disagreement and that they would ratify and recommend any negotiated agreement to their members.”
Hunt stresses that discussion must be focused on issues that were outstanding in February before talks collapsed and must not visit the “90% of issues that were agreed”.
The academy’s intervention came ahead of a BMA junior doctors committee meeting on Saturday, when it is due to discuss ways of ramping up industrial action, including an indefinite walkout or mass resignation.
The BMA had previously refused to return to the negotiating table unless the government lifted the threat of imposition, while the Department of Health refused to back away from imposition and said the doctor’s union must be prepared to discuss Saturday pay, which it described as the one remaining issue separating the two sides.
The government wants to reclassify Saturday as a normal working day but the BMA says junior doctors must be entitled to a premium rate of pay for all weekend working, as under the status quo.The government wants to reclassify Saturday as a normal working day but the BMA says junior doctors must be entitled to a premium rate of pay for all weekend working, as under the status quo.
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The eight month-long dispute has seen five walkouts resulting in the cancellation of more than 35,000 operations. The latest industrial action, which took place last week, saw an all-out strike for the first time, heightening concerns about patient safety, although senior doctors were covering for their colleagues. The eight-month dispute has seen five walkouts resulting in the cancellation of more than 35,000 operations. The latest industrial action, which took place last week, saw an all-out strike for the first time, heightening concerns about patient safety, although senior doctors were covering for their colleagues.
In response to Prior, the former Labour minister Baroness Symons said it was a “rather more hopeful” government response than expected.
She then asked him what the government would do if thousands of young doctors refused to sign the new contracts and opted to become locums.
Prior said: “When we have the opportunity of the next five days to try and find a resolution to this dispute, it’s not helpful in a sense now to look at the ‘what ifs’ . All my experience of these situations is that the least said in public soonest mended.”