BMA’s withdrawal from negotiations was “complete surprise,” says NHS Employers

Abstract

The BMA’s decision to cease negotiating on changes to contracts for consultants and junior doctors came as a “complete surprise,” NHS Employers has said. Last week the BMA announced that negotiations between itself and NHS Employers, which represents the government in contract negotiations, had stalled.1 The BMA said that negotiations had come to a standstill because the government had refused to agree necessary safeguards to protect doctors from working excessively long hours. In a statement NHS Employers said that the BMA informed it of the decision to “cease negotiating” on both the consultant and junior doctors’ contracts through social media.2 It said that the BMA’s decision to withdraw from negotiations had come “as a complete surprise” and that it had agreed with the association to discuss safeguards on working hours in the consultants’ contract …