Junior doctors talks need 'time and space', says Victoria Atkins

Health Secretary Victoria Atkins has compared talks with junior doctors in England to a "peace process away from the glare of the media".

She told the BBC she wanted to give people the time and space for discussions, away from social media.

Formal negotiations over the doctors' pay dispute collapsed in December.

But on Thursday, the British Medical Association said it had agreed to fresh talks with the government and an unnamed independent mediator.

A spokesperson for the association has said there was a need to restore trust and an independent mediator could help break the logjam.

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The row has run for more than a year and led to a number of strikes since March 2023.

The BMA wants a 35% pay rise phased over a few years. Ministers awarded an average of just under 9% for the last financial year and have suggested anything higher would be unaffordable.

Speaking to the Political Thinking with Nick Robinson podcast, Ms Atkins said she wanted to ensure people round the negotiating table did not feel beholden to deadlines or tweets.

She agreed with the suggestion that the negotiations would be "effectively talks in secret... like a peace process where people are going away for some time. away from the glare of the media" to try to get a settlement.

She added that in addition to pay, working conditions were also an issue and that she wanted to "help junior doctors with some of the working conditions that they are facing that make life really tough for them".

Asked by Nick Robinson whether the prime minister and chancellor were "a block to progress" she replied: "Very much not."

'By men for men'

During the interview, Ms Atkins was also asked if she stood by her comment to Stylist magazine that the NHS had been a "system created by men for men".

She agreed adding that historically, maternity care has not been "quite the priority".

"In what other part of the hospital would a patient be expected to go through what can be quite a painful episode to put it mildly... without pain relief?" she asked.

Earlier this week, a report was published calling for an overhaul of the UK's maternity and postnatal care.

The Birth Trauma Inquiry - run by MPs - said poor care was "all too frequently tolerated as normal".

It heard from 1,300 women, some of whom reported being mocked and denied basic needs such as pain relief.

'Quite frightening'

Recounting her own experience of giving birth to her first child, Ms Atkins said she had had "amazing care" but before the birth had been put on a ward with mothers who had had "very, very traumatic experiences".

"Seeing other mums in a great deal of distress, it was quite frightening actually," she said.

The hospital had since "rejigged things" and there were "better services and facilities available".

"But it's why for me, this is personal," Ms Atkins said.

"I want every woman to feel safe and happy as she goes in to give birth."

Someone in pain, in distress or frightened could struggle to "articulate their concerns", so it was important hospitals had a culture of "non-defensive transparency", she said

Labour's shadow health secretary Wes Streeting called the report "sobering" and said his party would "work in the same bipartisan spirit to deliver results".