UK doctors' union may call end to strikes

Months of industrial action by junior doctors in England's National Health Service may be coming to an end after their union recommended they accept a new offer of a 22.3-percent total pay increase over two years.

The British Medical Association and government officials announced the proposed pay rise on Monday, potentially ending 15 months of disruptive industrial action.

The association, which is known as the BMA, serves as the representative body for around 50,000 junior doctors, who, despite their title, are fully qualified physicians who form a substantial share of the medical workforce within the NHS.

BMA members will now vote on the deal, and, if it is approved, the current dispute will be concluded and the doctors' strike action in England will end.

The pay rise would be applied retroactively from April 2023, according to a statement from the Department for Health and Social Care.

"I am delighted that we have agreed an offer that finally paves the way to ending industrial action, which has caused untold misery to patients and staff," said Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting.

"This has been a tough negotiation, but we have worked rapidly to reach a fair offer. I have been honest about the terrible economic inheritance left for this government, while the junior doctors' committee has been clear that nothing less than the offer on the table will bring these strikes to an end."

The agreement comes after an extended period of industrial action by junior doctors, which began in early 2023. Their campaign has focused on a demand for a 35 percent salary increase, which they claim was essential to offset the effects of inflation.

Although the proposed agreement does not meet that initial demand, the BMA stated that it would mean junior doctors will receive an average pay increase of 22.3 percent over the two-year period of the dispute.

"This offer does not go all the way to restoring the pay lost by junior doctors over the last decade and a half," BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs Robert Laurenson and Vivek Trivedi said in a statement. "There is still a way to go but this government has shown it can learn from mistakes of the past."

Streeting added: "This is a fair offer. Fair to junior doctors, fair to patients, and fair to the NHS. It also represents an opportunity to truly reset relationships, so we can begin working together to bring waiting lists down and fix the broken NHS."

The series of junior doctor strikes included an unprecedented walkout in January that was the longest in the 75-year existence of the state-funded NHS.

Soaring inflation and escalating living costs have fueled widespread demands for improved wages across numerous industries in the UK. The strikes by medical professionals have proven to have been the most disruptive to public services.