Junior doctors have declined an invitation from the Health Secretary to begin pay talks and cease strikes due to begin Monday.

Junior Doctors are due to strike for three days beginning Monday amid disputes around pay.

Health Secretary, The Rt Hon Steve Barclay, extended an invitation to junior doctors yesterday to open dialogue between the two parties about pay in an attempt to avoid the strike action.

Unions representing ambulance workers, physiotherapists, nurses and midwives have been in talks with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) since Tuesday.

But the discussions have not involved junior doctors in the British Medical Association (BMA), who are still due to walk out for 72 hours on Monday, March 13.

The invitation from the health secretary

In a tweet, Health Secretary, The Rt Hon Steve Barclay, said: "I’ve written to @BMA_JuniorDocs inviting them for formal pay talks on the same basis other health unions accepted, including calling off next week’s strike.

"Let’s have a constructive dialogue to make the NHS a better place to work and ensure we deliver the care patients need."

The BMA junior doctors responded, saying Mr Barclay had failed to attend a meeting arranged for yesterday and so strike action would go ahead as planned on Monday.

The group said: "Just a reminder that we had a meeting today which @SteveBarclay  failed to attend.

"Without any credible negotiations, we have no choice but to strike on Monday and continue our fight for #PayRestoration."

Nearly 40,000 junior doctors voted to take industrial action in the BMA ballot.

Dr Rob Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairmen of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, told The Times that doctors were willing to keep striking until they got “full pay restoration” — a 35% rise. 

They added future strikes could last longer than 72 hours.

They also pledged to re-ballot members if their demand for pay restoration to 2008 levels had not been achieved when the union’s current six-month strike mandate runs out in August.

NHS express concerns about the impact strikes are having

NHS England has expressed concern about the impact of the strikes on emergency care and efforts to tackle waiting lists.

Chief strategy officer, Chris Hopson, told a summit recently he expected the strikes to have a “bigger and wider spread” impact than any of the walkouts so far.

Malvern Gazette: NHS England have expressed concerns the impact strikes are having on emergency care and efforts to tackle waiting lists.NHS England have expressed concerns the impact strikes are having on emergency care and efforts to tackle waiting lists. (Image: PA)

On Thursday, the Government said negotiations with other health unions had been constructive and will carry on next week.

Four of the unions involved, GMB, Unison, Unite, and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, called off strike action in order to facilitate the ongoing talks.

The Royal College of Nursing also averted strikes at the beginning of March when they entered into pay negotiations with the Government.