Hopes are rising for a deal in the junior doctors dispute after the government performed a U-turn to accept a peace plan put forward by leading doctors.
Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, has agreed to a largely symbolic pause in the process of imposing a controversial new contract to restart talks.
The British Medical Association looks likely to accept the offer, which was made on condition that Saturday pay rates are on the table.
Doctors’ leaders will meet tomorrow to decide whether they are willing to give ground on the issue to break the deadlock. The government will have to decide how far it is willing to move on other issues to reach a deal.
Mr Hunt decided in February to force through the contract after talks broke down on the issue of Saturday pay. Junior doctors last week staged the first all-out strike in NHS history, insisting that they also had wider concerns about working conditions.
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An indefinite strike and mass resignations are due to be considered at a BMA meeting this weekend but, in an effort to break the deadlock, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges proposed a temporary truce under which both sides would make gestures of goodwill to allow talks to restart.
Initially government sources poured cold water on the idea, saying that it was too late to do anything that might cast doubt on the introduction of the contract in August.
Yesterday, however, Mr Hunt had a change of heart and wrote to Dame Sue Bailey, president of the academy: “We will pause introduction of the new contract for five days from Monday should the [BMA] junior doctors’ committee agree to a return to talks.”
He insisted that the BMA must confirm it was willing to discuss Saturday pay, which Mr Hunt wants to reduce to make it easier for hospitals to have more doctors on the wards at weekends. He has promised a 13.5 per cent rise in basic salary to compensate.
Mr Hunt said: “This is a significant show of good faith by the government in order to break the deadlock. We now need the BMA to agree to negotiate on Saturday pay . . . in order for the talks to proceed next week.”
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The Academy said in a statement: “We believe this represents a good basis for resolution of the dispute and urge the BMA to play their part.” Sources at the BMA are optimistic that talks can resume next week, although there has been no formal response. Johann Malawana, chairman of its junior doctors committee, said: “We are keen to restart talks with an open mind. It is critical to find a way forward on all outstanding issues — which are more than just pay — and hope a new offer is made that can break the impasse.”
Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, pleaded with both sides to reach a deal to end a dispute during which about 150,000 appointments and operations have been cancelled.
“There is now an overriding duty on both sides to find a lasting solution,” she said. “There have been no winners, and it’s patients who have been the losers.”
David Cameron, who agreed the offer with Mr Hunt, said: “I think it’s important that if these talks do go ahead, they focus not on the 90 per cent of things that have been agreed, but focus very much on the 10 per cent of things that haven’t, particularly the issue around Saturday working.”
The developments came after a report warned that just one in ten trainee GPs plans to work full-time. The King’s Fund think tank said that family doctors were put off by rising workloads, adding that the government needed to address urgently the shortage of GPs.
