HEALTH Minister Maria Caulfield has ruled out acceding to pay demands from NHS doctors to avert strikes planned for later this month and next.
She told GB News: “We have put offers on the table. If you look at junior doctors, for example, we’ve offered 8% to 10%, depending on where a junior doctor is in their training…
“We have moved on a number of pay issues, both for junior doctors and consultants, but they are both stuck at the 35% pay demand and realistically, that’s not something that we as the Government or the taxpayer can afford and it’s not fair on other public sector workers, whether they’re police officers or teachers or nurses.
“That is not a demand that we can do across the board and if we give it to one, it wouldn’t be fair on the other public sector workers.”
She told Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster: “Well, we’re using a number of measures and you are right, that the strikes are not helping. We know that to date the strike action by doctors has caused just under a million appointments to be missed.
“That doesn’t help us tackle our waiting lists and we’ve got further strike action to take but we have been investing in our capacity, we’ve got rapid diagnostic units around the country…
“We’re increasing our capacity. But it is true that if we didn’t have a strike action, we would be drastically reducing those waiting lists further.”
Asked about reports that the Government wants to stop the pensions triple lock, she said: “I’m not going to comment on speculation, the triple lock will be kept next April. There’s absolutely no doubt about that.”
