Senior doctors’ strike signals fight over NHS pay is just beginning

While some unions have accepted government offers, ministers are still failing to address real-terms erosion in pay

Just when NHS strikes in England seemed to be ending, another group of staff has announced its own stoppages - and, as ever, pay is the issue.

In early May, eight of the 12 unions that represent NHS personnel in England, apart from doctors and dentists, accepted the government's pay offer, albeit after months of industrial action. Then on Tuesday the Royal College of Nursing - the biggest of the four unions who had rejected it - announced it would not be holding any more walkouts. In a ballot, too few of its members voted to endorse up to another six months of strikes.