Junior doctors pay deal to be welcomed but this is just the start of a long and hard journey for the NHS

The starting point for bringing wait lists down is to get junior doctors back to work, which this Government has done. But that alone will not deal with the underlying crisis that is afflicting the NHS.

Further warning signs are there, even amidst this pay deal announcement with junior doctors not ruling out strike action in the future with Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairman of the BMA’s Junior Doctors Committee, saying “the journey is not over”.

Dr Robert Laurenson, committee co-chairman, says that junior doctors would be expecting an above-inflation pay rise next year.

The Government will have to perform a high-wire act in dealing with the crisis across the NHS.

On the one hand, junior doctors are rightly arguing that they have taken a pay cut since 2008 but at the same time there isn’t much money to throw at the NHS left.

It’s deeply worrying that NHS spend continues to rise but patient care continues to deteriorate.

This is not the fault of frontline staff, who are doing the best in the most trying circumstances. However, the new Government needs to push ahead with reform of the NHS and ensure that there is a sustainable future for universal healthcare in the country.

The NHS needs leadership that will count every penny and make sure that taxpayers are getting value for money.

The junior doctors pay deal is just the start of a long and hard road for this once venerated organisation. We cannot have an NHS with a country attached to it and need to return to the ideal of a health service that works for the people.