Streeting hits out at BMA ‘delusion’ as talks to avert resident doctors’ strike fail

Six-day stoppage in England to go ahead from Tuesday as health secretary withdraws offer of extra training places The NHS in England is bracing for the longest strike yet by resident doctors after last-ditch talks failed, prompting Wes Streeting to accuse the medics of suffering from “delusion”. Many thousands of resident – formerly junior – doctors will stage a six-day stoppage over pay and jobs starting at 7am on Tuesday, just after the Easter weekend. A deadline for agreement ended on Thursday. It will be the 16th walkout the doctors have staged since their first strike in March 2023, and there are growing fears that the dispute could drag on for another year. Streeting confirmed in a letter to the British Medical Association that he had withdrawn his offer to create 1,000 extra places in specialist medical training this year, as that was conditional on the BMA accepting the government’s most recent offer, which it rejected last week. Talks on Tuesday and Wednesday this week failed to reach a deal that would have led to the BMA suspending or cancelling the strike. The union and ministers remain far apart on a number of key issues, including pay. Jim Mackey, the chief e