ENGLAND — The UK government withdrew an offer to create 1,000 new doctor training posts in England after the British Medical Association refused to call off a six-day strike scheduled for next week. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had set a 48-hour deadline on Monday evening for the walkout to be cancelled if the union wanted to keep the training posts offer.

The extra training posts were part of a package of measures put forward by ministers earlier this year to resolve the dispute with resident doctors. The strike was called last week when talks between the government and the BMA broke down over pay and job shortages.

"These posts would have gone live this month, but as systems now need to prepare for strikes and more uncertainty, it simply won't be operationally or financially possible to launch these posts in time to recruit for this year," said a Department of Health and Social Care spokesman.

The government said the move would not affect the overall number of doctors in the NHS because the new posts would be created from existing short-term posts. Resident doctors fill short-term posts when they cannot obtain official training posts. The training posts offered are those doctors move into after the first two years of training, when they specialise in areas such as general practice or surgery. Last summer there were 30,000 applicants for around 10,000 such posts, including some applicants from abroad.

"It is extremely disappointing," said Dr Jack Fletcher, BMA resident doctor committee chair. "It is genuinely disheartening to be at this point after what had been constructive talks up until a few weeks ago when the government moved the goalposts."

"It is simply wrong that the development of the doctors of the future is being used as a pawn like this," Fletcher added. "We have consistently maintained that we are willing to postpone industrial action should a genuinely credible offer be provided."

The government had also offered to cover some out-of-pocket expenses such as exam fees and to ensure faster pay progression through the five salary bands that span training. The BMA said the deal, particularly its pay progression element, had been watered down at the last minute.

The government accepted the recommendations of the independent pay review body that all doctors, including resident doctors, should receive a 3.5% pay rise from this month. The BMA called the recommendation a "crushing blow." The union uses the Retail Price Index measure of inflation for its calculations because it is higher than other measures and because the government uses that measure when adding interest to student loans.

Next week's walkout begins at 07:00 BST on Tuesday and will be the joint longest since the dispute began, as resident doctors have only once before taken part in a six-day walkout. It is the 15th walkout since the dispute started in March 2023. Resident doctors make up nearly half of medics working in the NHS, and two-thirds of resident doctors are BMA members.