Doctors have agreed to enter talks with Health Secretary Steve Barclay in a move that could finally end three months of NHS strikes.
The British Medical Association invited the minister to negotiations a day after the rest of the NHS workforce concluded talks with a deal for England.
Talks are expected to begin early next week.
Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairman of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, said: “Our position has been that we are open to talk in good faith, meaningfully, at any time.
“We were ready to talk months ago. Our formal dispute started over 150 days ago and, again, that is just what I mean in that it is disappointing it has taken Steve Barclay so long to get to the negotiating table.
“I only hope that he does come with good faith and a mandate to negotiate.”
Until now good faith between junior doctors and Mr Barclay had broken down after the BMA says he turned up to meetings then insisted he had “no mandate” to discuss improved pay.
Mr Barclay then formally invited junior doctors to pay talks on the eve of their three-day strike at the start of this week, on condition that they call it off - which they refused.
However now doctors have no strikes currently planned, but the BMA says more will be arranged if talks fail.
The 72-hour strike by around 60,000 junior doctors - who make up around 45% of the medical workforce - was the most disruptive yet leading to hundreds of thousands of cancelled appointments.
Negotiations by unions representing other NHS staff including nurses and paramedics this week resulted in an offer of a 5% rise for 2023/24.
For the 2022/23 financial year almost at an end, the Government offered a one off bonus of 2.5% for the best paid and 8.2% for the worst paid.
This comes on top of the 4% increase already implemented for 2022/23.
The package will now go to a vote of union members including at Unison,
Unite, GMB and the Royal College of Nursing.
All but Unite recommend that their members vote for the deal.
Although staff could reject it in ballots expected to be completed within the next month, ministers are not threatening to withdraw the offer if they do, meaning the money is almost certain to be paid out.
The BMA had said junior doctors’ pay has fallen in real terms by 26% since 2008/09 and “pay restoration” would require a 35.3% pay rise.
Mr Barclay has called on junior doctors to follow the example of other health unions representing staff on the main Agenda for Change contract.
Mr Barclay said: “We have offered the same terms to the junior doctors that were accepted by the other trade unions and that is what I hope the junior doctors will respond to.”
Junior doctors got a 2% rise during 2022/23 - despite inflation running at well over 10%.
But unlike the rest of NHS workers, junior doctors were at the end of a multi-year deal agreed with the BMA in 2019.
The Government says junior doctors’ pay has increased by a cumulative 8.2% since 2019/20 - an annual pay uplift of around 2% over four years up until 31 March 2023.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “The Health and Social Care Secretary has been clear his door is open and wrote to the BMA again today to reiterate the offer made last week to begin formal talks if strikes are paused.
“These are same terms on which the Agenda for Change unions entered the talks which concluded positively.
“We want to find a fair settlement which recognises the crucial role of junior doctors and the wider economic pressures facing the UK, as we have done with other unions”.
NHS England last night revealed that this week’s junior doctors strike had been the most disruptive of all to hit the NHS.
Some 175,000 appointments and operations were immediately halted to divert staff to cover emergency care.
A series of strikes by workers including nurses and paramedics before then had led to 142,000 cancelled appointments.
NHS Medical Director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said: “Despite the huge efforts that NHS staff made to keep patients safe and minimise disruption,
this strike was on an unprecedented scale and had a greater impact than all the other industrial action we have seen so far this winter combined.
“Over 175,000 appointments and procedures were rescheduled to protect emergency, critical and urgent care for patients, which will inevitably impact on efforts to tackle the Covid backlog.”
