Junior Doctors’ bitter contract dispute could be resolved within hours as talks enter final day

May 18, 2016

Talks between BMA and Government are scheduled to finish today
Announcement is expected after ‘real progress’ made in negotiations
Junior doctors expected to accept Saturday morning as ‘normal hours’
BMA says any deal would have to be put before junior doctors in a ballot

Kate Pickles For Mailonline

Published:
00:21 EST, 18 May 2016

|
Updated:
02:54 EST, 18 May 2016

View
comments

Hopes the bitter dispute over a new contract for junior doctors could soon be over are building with an announcement expected later today.

Leaders from the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Government are entering their final day of negotiations with the arbitration service saying ‘real progress’ has been made.

Acas – the independent conciliation service mediating the negotiations – is expected to say the BMA, Department of Health and NHS Employers have finally reached agreement over the controversial new contract.

The talks to end the bitter dispute between junior doctors and the Government’s new contract are scheduled to end today after months of disruption and ill-feeling

Insiders told The Guardian ‘We’re nearly there’ with the progress reportedly made on a range of key issues.

It is believed any deal will have to include a resolution over Saturday pay, one of the main sticking points between all parties.

The newspaper reports that junior doctors may have conceded the principle of Saturday working becoming part of a normal working week, but only up until 1pm – not 5pm as currently proposed.

Nurses filling in for doctors ‘is a cheap fix for staff…

Leading sexual health specialist says ‘HIV prevention wonder…

Eating potatoes four times a week raises risk of high blood…

Stressed? Don’t worry! Being busy gives you a sharper mind…

In return, sources say Jeremy Hunt has agreed to end an anomaly that means junior doctors are the only staff in the NHS who do not enjoy legal protection for whistleblowing.

Last week, the ‘constructive and positive’ discussions were extended in the hope a new deal could be thrashed out with today given as the deadline.

Acas said that talks had been conducted in a ‘constructive and positive’ atmosphere and that ‘real progress’ had been made to address some of the outstanding issues.

Around 90 per cent of the contract had been agreed before previous talks broke down.

The agreement to resume talks follows a wave of industrial action launched by junior doctors in recent months, which saw thousands of operations cancelled.

Junior doctors stopped providing emergency care for the first time in NHS history during their most recent walkout.

Junior doctors stopped providing emergency care for the first time in NHS history during their most recent walkout but there are hopes the dispute will end today

More than 125,000 appointments and operations were postponed, on top of almost 25,000 procedures cancelled during previous action.

The BMA and the Department of Health had been negotiating the new contract for three years.

Around 90 per cent of the contract had previously been agreed, but the main bone of contention was over whether Saturdays should attract extra ‘unsocial’ payments, among other issues.

Dr Johann Malawana, chairman of the junior doctors committee, has previously said any contract – whether agreed or not – should be put to a referendum of 55,000 junior doctors.

At the BMA’s junior doctor conference last weekend, he admitted the talks were being held ‘in a spirit of constructive engagement’.

‘We’re talking. They’re listening. We’re listening too. If this were a movie, I’d now pull out a large envelope with the word ‘deal’ written on it.’