The government says a deal offers legislation that prioritises British medical graduates for specialty training jobs starting next year and offers to cover the costs of training expenses such as exam fees.
The deal does not include a pay rise. Writing in the Guardian, external, Sir Keir Starmer said pay for resident doctors – the new name for junior doctors – has increased by 28.9% over the past three years.
In a statement released on Saturday morning, the BMA called on the health secretary to “focus his time and attention on offering a deal that will stop next week’s strikes going ahead, rather than making claims that strike action could cause the NHS to collapse.”
The BMA has written to chief executives of NHS Trusts in England saying it recognised that, in the event of a strike, resident doctors may be required to return to work to “maintain safe patient care”.
The letter, signed by BMA council chair Dr Tom Dolphin, says: “As doctors, we at the BMA wish to ensure that patients remain safe”.
Speaking to LBC earlier this week, Streeting said the current situation was “probably the worst pressure the NHS has faced since Covid”.
He questioned why the BMA hadn’t taken up his offer of pushing the strike back to January “if they wanted to just give me a kicking”.
“I can only assume that the reason why they refuse to do that is because they know that this week will be most painful for the NHS,” he added.
Echoing the health secretary, the prime minister said the “reckless” strikes “should not happen” while the NHS is facing its “most precarious moment since the pandemic”.
Sir Keir wrote in the Guardian on Friday that the BMA had been sent a new offer as well as a chance to reschedule the strikes until after Christmas.
“Don’t get me wrong – of course I would rather they were cancelled… But under the circumstances, I wanted to be sure we have left no stone unturned in our efforts to protect the NHS,” he said.
The BMA said it will ask its members whether the government’s offer will be enough to call off Wednesday’s strikes.
If members indicate yes, then they will be given time to consider the offer in more detail and a formal follow-up referendum would be held on ending the dispute completely.