Junior doctors will strike as planned tomorrow after last-ditch talks between Government officials and the British Medical Association (BMA) have concluded for the day without resolution, officials have said.
Sir David Dalton - the chief executive of Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, who has been drafted in by the Government to broker a deal - was holding discussions with BMA representatives and officials from NHS Employers in a bid to avert industrial action.
But the Department of Health said that the informal talks had concluded for the day and the BMA said that the strike is going ahead as planned.
Junior doctors - which refers to all doctors below consultant level - will provide emergency care only from 8am on Wednesday in the 24-hour walkout.
NHS England has said that 1,150 planned inpatient procedures have been cancelled as a result of the planned strike, alongside 1,734 day procedures.
The major sticking point is the issue of weekend pay and whether Saturdays should be classed as normal "plain" time or should attract a premium.
Currently, 7pm to 7am Monday to Friday and the whole of Saturday and Sunday attract a premium rate of pay for junior doctors.
An offer from the Government in November said doctors would receive time-and-a-half for any hours worked Monday to Sunday between 10pm and 7am, and time-and-a-third for any hours worked between 7pm and 10pm on Saturdays and 7am and 10pm on Sundays.
But in a new offer, dated January 16, Sir David said that as part of an overall agreement, a premium rate of pay could kick in from 5pm on Saturdays rather than 7pm.
Furthermore, premium pay could start at 9pm Monday to Friday.
The BMA rejects the idea that Saturday is a normal working day. The Government has strongly suggested it will impose the new contract on junior doctors if agreement cannot be reached in the next few weeks.
It is understood the BMA put forward a proposal that would have seen doctors' basic pay rise by about half the 11% offered by ministers in return for Saturday not to be treated as a normal working day.
The union argued it would have been cost neutral, meaning the Government would not pay any more than the £5 billion currently spent on junior doctor salaries. But it is thought the Government blocked the deal.
In the Commons, Jeremy Hunt refused to deny claims that he rejected a deal that could have averted Wednesday's industrial action.
The Health Secretary side-stepped a question from shadow health minister Justin Madders when he asked if Mr Hunt had blocked a proposal put forward by the BMA.
Meanwhile a new poll has found that two-thirds of adults in England support the strike. The survey of more than 800 people, conducted by Ipsos Mori and the Health Service Journal, found that 66% support the action.
And 64% of those questioned said the Government is more at fault for the dispute continuing this long and 13% said the blame lies with junior doctors. Nearly a fifth (18%) believe both sides are equally at fault.
Commenting on the strike, Liberal Democrat former health minister Norman Lamb said: "If strikes go ahead tomorrow this should be a wake-up call to the Government that they need to take a more constructive approach to resolving this dispute. They cannot solve the capacity and funding problems in the NHS by forcing this contract on junior doctors.
"Growing demand for services, coupled with a funding settlement which doesn't keep up, are the fundamental problems facing health and care and yet the Government is refusing to take real action to address this.
"What we need is a cross-party commission to fundamentally review NHS and care funding, to ensure we can give a fair deal to both patients and NHS staff in years to come.
"Forcing through changes to the junior doctors contract is completely the wrong thing for the Government to be focusing on at this critical time in the future of the NHS."
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