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Junior doctor contract negotiations

On 8 March the Government Legal Department set out the Health Secretary’s response to the proposed claim for judicial review by the BMA regarding the introduction of the new contract.

NHS England has issued advice for patients during the junior doctors’ industrial action on 9th and 10th March 2016:

Dr Mike Durkin, NHS National Director for Patient Safety, wrote an open letter to junior doctors on 4 March in which he described the contract changes as ‘good for doctors and patients’.

Previous updates

On 23 February the BMA announced 3 further dates of industrial action in March and April.

A Department of Health spokesperson said:

Further strike action is completely unnecessary and will mean tens of thousands more patients face cancelled operations – over a contract that was 90% agreed with the BMA and which senior NHS leaders including Simon Stevens have endorsed as fair and safe. The new contract will mean an average 13.5% basic pay rise, and will bring down the maximum number of hours doctors can work.

We urge junior doctors to look at the detail of the contract and the clear benefits it brings.

More information about the new contract is on the NHS Employers website.

The Health Secretary gave a statement to Parliament on the introduction of the new junior doctors’ contract on 11 February.

An independent review into junior doctors’ experience of their training and support while working for the NHS and looking at the long-standing issue of low morale was also announced.

On 10 February Sir David Dalton wrote to Jeremy Hunt to update him on the negotiations and to advise that government should do whatever it deems necessary to end uncertainty for the NHS.

On 3 February Sir David Dalton wrote to all doctors in training, updating on the progress with negotiations with the BMA Junior Doctors Committee.

Sir David Dalton wrote to the Secretary of State on 1 February setting out where the talks had got to by 29 January when they adjourned.

On 1 February the BMA announced its intention to strike on 10 February as planned but modified the level of service it asked junior doctors to withdraw. Rather than an all out strike, emergency services were still provided and the strike lasted for 24 hours from 8am.

Jeremy Hunt wrote to the Chair of the BMA Council, Mark Porter, in response to the latest decision to strike.

The BMA announced its intention to suspend the previously announced 48-hour strike as talks continue.

A DH spokesperson said:

The strike that took place last week was unnecessary while talks are ongoing, so it’s extremely welcome news that the BMA has suspended next week’s action, though as it stands emergency care will still be withdrawn in February. In the end, the government and junior doctors want to do the same thing by improving patient care at weekends – and we look forward to further constructive discussions.

ACAS, the conciliation service, announced that all parties had agreed to recommence talks on Thursday 14 January to try and reach a negotiated settlement.

NHS England has published a statement on the action taken on 12 January.

Sir David Dalton, Chief Executive of Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust has been appointed by the Health Secretary to lead negotiations on behalf of government and the NHS in new talks with the BMA.

Sir David wrote to chief executives, human resource and medical directors in the NHS on 5 January to explain his new role in the negotiations.

Letter to all junior doctors

On 7 January, 3 senior NHS leaders wrote to every junior doctor at the request of Sir David Dalton regarding the proposed new contract for junior doctors. This included key areas such as pay and safety and non-contractual matters around training, to ensure every junior doctor was in full possession of as much relevant information as possible in advance of industrial action.

Read summaries of the detail on safety, training and pay taken from the full letter.

The conciliation service, ACAS, facilitated talks on Friday 8 January in which it was agreed that talks would continue in the week beginning 11 January.

Announcement of strike action

Following weeks of talks, NHS Employers’ Chief Executive Danny Mortimer wrote to Jeremy Hunt on 4 January 2016 outlining the position the contract negotiations had reached as the BMA announced its intention to take industrial action.

In response to the BMA’s announcement the Health Secretary wrote to Chair of the BMA Mark Porter expressing his disappointment at the decision.

Background

The government wants to modernise the junior doctor contract to make it fairer for doctors and safer for patients.

In 2012 the British Medical Association and NHS Employers began discussions on the new contract. The negotiations broke down in October 2014. An independent review body, the Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body (DDRB), was invited to review the contract and to make recommendations, which were published in July 2015. The BMA declined to re-enter negotiations at that point.

The new contract offer, which takes account of the DDRB recommendations, was published in November 2015 by NHS Employers.

NHS Employers is the organisation that represents NHS workforce employers and has published full details of the contract offer and resources for junior doctors

The Health Secretary gave an oral statement to Parliament on 4 November on the proposed contract and invited the BMA to return to the negotiations without preconditions.

The Secretary of State gave a speech to Parliament on 30 November 2015, outlining that agreement had been reached to continue negotiations and avert the previously planned strike action.

ACAS published a memorandum of understanding which set out the terms under which the negotiations would proceed.

Channel website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health-and-social-care

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