BMA chief urges prime minister to engage in strike talks

The BMA’s chair of council, Philip Banfield, has urged Rishi Sunak to accept consultants’ invitation to attend talks to try to resolve their pay dispute with the government.1The government’s position throughout the industrial dispute has been that it will not negotiate while strikes continue. With no future strike dates currently announced for consultants in England, the chair of the BMA Consultants Committee, Vishal Sharma, wrote to Sunak and the health and social care secretary, Steve Barclay, on 2 October offering to enter negotiations, with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) acting as a facilitator if required. If the invitation is not accepted within four weeks, consultants said they would announce further strike dates.The government is yet to issue a formal response to the invitation but told The BMJ it would respond “in due course.”Speaking to The BMJ, Banfield reiterated that the BMA’s door was open. He said, “As we…
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