Medical leaders call for arbitration to resolve junior doctors’ dispute

Medical leaders have called for third-party arbitration to break the impasse on a pay dispute between junior doctors and the government after hundreds of thousands of procedures and appointments were cancelled as a result of last week’s strike in England.

The “colossal impact” of the four-day stoppage compounded by a health service already stretched by the coronavirus pandemic and facing workplace shortages has led the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AoMRC) to intervene and urge both parties to engage with an independent organisation.

The AoMRC, the membership body for the UK and Ireland’s 24 medical royal colleges and faculties, said in a statement it was “concerned that a solution has not yet been reached and about the anticipated impact on NHS services and patients that will potentially follow any future action”.

It added: “Both parties need to rapidly engage with an independent organisation to work out how the deadlock can be broken for the sake of patients and the wider NHS.”

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Source: The Guardian, 20 April 2023