Health minister urged to give junior doctors hope to avoid further strikes

JUNIOR doctors in Northern Ireland are unlikely to throw their strike placards away any time soon after their 24-hour walkout has so far been met with radio silence from the health minister.

There was blanket coverage from the picket lines on Wednesday morning where the anger and disappointment felt by junior medics was made clear.

At Thursday’s sitting of Stormont Health Committee, plans were made to invite junior doctors to set out their concerns.

The SDLP’s Colin McGrath said there would be little point unless Mr Swann could give some indication of where the dispute was heading.

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“I think the worst thing we could do is give people false hope,” he said.

“If they’re going to come here, I think it’s important they get the opportunity to raise the case, but we obviously don’t control their pay nor do we control the finance for that.”

Suggesting that the committee writes to Mr Swann, he said: “I could nearly write the letter that he’ll come back and say, which is that he doesn’t have enough money to be able to offer them anymore.”

“We all go and join them on picket lines, but at the end of the day (there is no point) unless somebody’s going to sit down with them in a room and thrash out these details and have money in their pocket to be able to deliver to them.”

He added: “We need to pay them the 30% that they’re not getting.”

The BMA’s NI Junior Doctor Committee has said that pay has eroded by 30% over 16 years.

They are demanding a full restoration to 2008 levels as well as an immediate above-inflation pay award.

The Department of Health has currently offered a backdated 9.1% pay increase for 2023/24, including 10.7% for those in their first year.

Before the strikes, a spokesperson said it was only possible to implement the recommendations of independent pay review bodies or mirror pay settlements in England.

They added that there was still “grounds for productive negotiations” with junior doctors on 2024/25 pay, reforming the junior doctor contract in Northern Ireland and addressing areas of concern on other non-pay issues.

During Thursday’s health committee meeting, pharmacists also warned of a financial crisis over the supply of medicines.

Community Pharmacy NI said that many services were juggling credit agreements between suppliers just to keep supply lines open.

“There are huge uncertainties in the pricing model (Drug Tariff) which means that pharmacies do not know from one month to the next how much the department will pay them for certain medicines,” a spokesperson said.

In some cases, they said pharmacists were supplying medicines at a loss to make sure customers did not go without.

“Many community pharmacy owners have been putting their own savings in to shore up the business as this instability and uncertainty continues,” they said.

“There are limited financial measures in place from the Department of Health until the end of this month, after which there is a very real fear over the guaranteed supply of medicines.”

In a statement, the department said the minister had restated, to the chair of the BMA Junior Doctor Committee, his commitment to further negotiations “when there is greater clarity on any final settlement in the ongoing disputes in England and Wales”.

“Grounds remain for productive negotiations on several fronts which include 2024/25 pay, and potentially reforming the junior doctor contract, as well as addressing concerns on such as working conditions.

“The minister has also advised that the Labour Relations Agency is available and willing to facilitate discussions and has indicated that the department would enter such discussions in a positive spirit, should this be acceptable.”