Everyone out!

The Prime Minister has drawn first in the ongoing dispute with junior doctors over pay and conditions, withdrawing an offer to expand medical training places after doctors refused to abandon proposed strike action.

PM Starmer had proposed the creation of around 1,000 additional training posts (for doctors already working in the system) as part of a broader package aimed at resolving the increasingly acrimonious disagreement.

After the British Medical Association confirmed that strikes would proceed, the government withdrew the proposal, arguing that workforce expansion on this scale could not be implemented during ongoing industrial action.

The decision to withdraw training places has been criticised by those who believe that expanding training capacity is essential to retaining doctors, regardless of short-term disputes. The episode highlights the continuing tension between immediate industrial relations and longer-term workforce planning within the NHS.

It is the kind of brinkmanship, on both sides, that the NHS—and its patients—could do without.

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