Junior doctors' strike: NHS chief calls for ACAS help with talks

The government and junior doctors' unions should call on conciliation service Acas for help with talks ahead of "extremely worrying" strikes this week, an NHS chief has said.

Potentially 350,000 appointments and operations could be cancelled, NHS Confederation chief executive Matthew Taylor told BBC News.

Junior doctors in England are set to stage a four-day strike from Tuesday.

The British Medical Association wants a 35% pay rise.

It says the increase would make up for 15 years of below-inflation wage rises which has caused a recruitment and retention crisis.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said on Sunday that the demand was "unrealistic" and out of step with pay settlements in other parts of the public sector, but the BMA said Mr Barclay was yet to put a serious offer on the table.

The strike involving thousands of doctors is due to take place from 07:00 BST on Tuesday until 07:00 on Saturday, with walkouts across both planned and emergency care. It is set to be the most disruptive walkout in NHS history.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Taylor, whose body represents health service trusts, said the government and unions needed to call in independent public body Acas to help advance talks.

"It's depressing that there seems to be no movement at all from the two sides of this dispute over the last few days," he said.

"We should consider asking the government and the trade unions to call in Acas, the conciliation service, to provide some basis for negotiations, because if anything the positions seem to have hardened over the last couple of days."

He said the intervention was needed avoid even further strikes.

Mr Taylor described the impact of thousands of junior doctors striking as "enormous".

He said: "Those services are stretched and there's no question there will be a risk to patient safety, there will be a risk to patient dignity because we're unable to provide the kind of care we want."

He added: "It's an extremely worrying situation... The leaders I spoke to over the last few days are genuinely worried.

"Now to be facing this situation where those waiting lists are going to get longer, cancelling work, not being able to guarantee the level of care you want to provide - well that's heartbreaking for an NHS leader."

Recently Acas - which receives funding from the government - has been involved in mediation in the Royal Mail and higher education strike disputes.

When there is a disagreement between an employer and group of employees, they attempt to help settle the dispute when both sides can reach on agreement. They say the conciliator is impartial and does not take sides.

On Saturday writing in the Telegraph, the health secretary wrote: " We cannot, however, negotiate until the BMA confirms it is pausing next week's strike and moving significantly from its position of 35%.

"Without this, I regrettably see no prospect of getting into serious and constructive talks."

But Dr Mike Greenhalgh, deputy co-chair of the BMA's junior doctors committee, told the BBC over the weekend: "It's hard to negotiate when only one side is doing it and we're not getting anything back from the government on that front."

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) have been contacted for comment.

The BMA has refused to exempt any services, in contrast to nurse and ambulance unions who did agree to some exemptions in their recent strikes. But the BMA said plans were in place to pull junior doctors off the picket line if lives were in danger.

Mental health and some GP services will also be affected.

GP surgeries are suspending routine appointments for up to a week due to the strikes, according to the Telegraph.

It follows an estimated 86,000 junior doctors striking in March in a 72-hour walkout, which caused more than 175,000 patient appointments and procedures to be cancelled in England.

While emergency care was provided by consultants during the strike, many planned, non-urgent treatments were rescheduled.

Junior doctors represent nearly half of the medical workforce in England and include those who have just graduated from university, through to some with 10 years of experience.

Two-thirds of junior doctors are members of the BMA.

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