As if Prime Minister Keir Starmer didn’t have enough to worry about overseas with Donald Trump’s tariffs, now old tensions are also threatening to cause problems closer to home. The British Medical Association has announced today that its junior doctors – now referred to as ‘residents’ – have re-entered a dispute with the government over delays to pay recommendations for the next financial year. What exactly does this mean? It means that more strikes could be on the horizon.
There is no guarantee that the goodwill Streeting has built up with the doctors’ union will last indefinitely
Labour Health Secretary Wes Streeting has enjoyed boasting of his successful negotiations with medics after he closed a deal with doctors just three weeks after his party’s July election victory last year. But his rosy relationship with the medical profession wasn’t to last. Thanks to some foot-dragging by the doctors’ and dentists’ pay review body (DDRB) – which advises the government on salary rates for health professionals – next year’s pay recommendations have not been published on time.
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