Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, added that he thought the planned industrial action in October, November and December is an “excessive response” to any outstanding concerns. The General Medical Council had warned that patients would suffer as a result.
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Junior doctors in England started striking earlier this year after the majority of doctors backed industrial action at the end of last year.
And she said the future walkouts were still avoidable, if Mr Hunt is prepared to call off further imposition of the new seven-day contract.
‘While the BMA provided more than the required notice, we have taken this decision to ensure the NHS has the necessary time to prepare and to put in place contingency plans to protect patient safety.
And they also say that junior doctors could return to work if there is a “major unpredictable event” while they are on strike.
Their trade union, the British Medical Association (BMA), said in a statement: “There are four weeks until October”.
However, Hunt made clear late on Monday that the BMA’s decision to call off next week’s action, while welcome, would not persuade him to lift his threat to impose a new contract on all 54,000 medics working in the NHS in England below the level of consultant from next month.
Dr Ellen McCourt, who chairs the BMA junior doctors’ committee, said: “We want to resolve this dispute through talks, but in forcing through a contract that junior doctors have rejected and which they don’t believe is good for their patients or themselves, the Government has left them with no other choice”.
The warning from the GMC comes after senior doctors last week urged the government and junior doctors to restart negotiations to avoid the series of strikes.
A junior doctor who studied in Nottingham has posted a Facebook status about the strikes which has got tens of thousands of people talking..
NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, the two organisations which represent acute, mental health, community and ambulance trusts in England, welcomed the cancellation but urged the BMA to call off all remaining industrial action.
But junior doctors say the future planned strikes will go ahead unless Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt agrees to a new deal. She asked how he meant to find the extra doctors to deliver seven-day services when the NHS is already struggling to fill posts.
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A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “The public will be relieved that the BMA has chose to call off the first phase of these unprecedented strikes, so this is welcome news”.
