NHS: Junior doctors' strike begins as health bosses lament "profoundly demoralising" situation

The start of another junior doctors’ strike is "a profoundly demoralising moment" for the health service, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation has said.

Matthew Taylor urged the British Medical Association (BMA) and the government to be "imaginative" to find a resolution in the long-running dispute. Junior doctors in England began a five-day strike in their pay row with the government at 7am today (February 24).

Thousands of medics have walked out until 11.59pm on Wednesday. Taylor said: "I don’t think it helps anyone to try to cast blame. The reality is this is a profoundly demoralising moment for us in the health service, to have another five days of junior doctor strikes."

As the strike was due to begin, Health and Social Care Secretary Victoria Atkins said the BMA junior doctors committee had "refused to put our offer to their members" and called for more talks with the union. Meanwhile the BMA has criticised the government for failing to make a "credible" pay offer.

"I want to see doctors treating patients, not standing on picket lines," the health secretary said. "In negotiations with the BMA Junior Doctors Committee, we made it clear we were prepared to go further than the pay increase of up to 10.3 per cent that they have already received. They refused to put our offer to their members.

"More than 1.3m appointments and operations have already been cancelled or rescheduled since industrial action began - five days of further action will compound this.

"The NHS has robust contingency plans in place, and it is vital that people continue to come forward for treatment. But no one should underestimate the impact these strikes have on our NHS. So again, I urge the BMA Junior Doctors Committee to call off their strikes and show they are prepared to be reasonable, so that we can come back to the negotiating table to find a fair way forward."

BMA junior doctors committee co-chairmen Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said: "The government could have stopped these strikes by simply making a credible pay offer for junior doctors in England to begin reversing the pay cuts they have inflicted upon us for more than a decade.

"The same government could have even accepted our offer to delay this round of strike action to give more space for talks, all we asked for in return was a short extension of our mandate to strike. The fact that ministers have chosen strike action over what could have been the end of this year’s pay dispute is disappointing, to say the least."