Rishi Sunak tells doctors that we do not “have a magic money tree” which comes as junior doctors in England are due to meet with the government.
Ahead of the meeting the Prime Minister said it “is disappointing” that junior doctors have turned down a “on average 10% pay rise.”
On Tuesday morning Sunak said, “We don’t have a magic money tree. And we have to be fair to everybody.
“A million other NHS workers have all actually come to a reasonable agreement with the Government.
“Every other bit of the public sector has come to a reasonable agreement. I think what we’ve done is fair, it’s reasonable, it’s been endorsed by an independent body.”
He added, “I really hope that people will get around the table and come to a sensible (agreement).”
On Monday, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said that the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Health Minister Andrew Stephenson are to meet this week to discuss how to move forwards.
Speaking on Monday, Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairs of the BMA’s Junior Doctors Committee, said, “After almost three weeks of silence from the Government we could have been using to find an end to this dispute, we can confirm that following our letter requesting talks we will be meeting with health minister Andrew Stephenson later this week.
“We hope he will come with a constructive attitude toward getting a credible offer we can put to our members, as a matter of urgency, that can end this dispute once and for all.”
