Dr Steve Taylor was speaking on LBC after the BMA announced the government had ‘made a new offer’ at the last minute which it would put to its members for a vote.

Dr Taylor said: “It’s about who’s in charge and how they are listening.

“It seems to me that when Wes Streeting was in charge, he wasn’t listening anymore and it became a challenge for the BMA to have conversations.

“They’ve now had a conversation with somebody new and managed to get something done.”

Change in health secretary

He added: “It’s possible that the change in health secretary has made a difference. We know that happens a lot.”

Dr Taylor described the agreement as ‘a compromise’ and said he hopes it’s acceptable to both sides.

He said: “It was always a negotiation. It was always a compromise, but from what I’ve read, it seems to fit both sides okay.

“I think it’s going to be good for us as taxpayers and good for resident doctors.”

Rewarded

He added: “We don’t want any strikes. We want people to be working hard in the NHS and being rewarded well for what they do.”

Listen to Dr Taylor’s interview on LBC in full on the DAUK Instagram.

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Student loan forgiveness

Now Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) is calling on the Government to address student loan forgiveness for resident doctors. Writing on the DAUK Substack, Dr Taylor warned that the student loan scandal was trapping graduates with an extra 9% income tax for up to 30 years. “This disproportionately affects medical graduates who have some of the biggest student loans for their five to six-year degrees,” he wrote. Dr Taylor highlighted comments by Dr Luke Craddock, which has had more than 2.2 million views on social media. Dr Craddock posted: “This is going to cost unimaginable amounts of money as my generation stops working past the £50k threshold.

Productivity nightmare

“Many will be reducing hours or refusing extra work. A productivity nightmare. “I’ve been working as a doctor for three years. My repayments don’t even cover the interest.” Dr Taylor blogged that student loan forgiveness would be a low-cost intervention for the Government in the short term. It would effectively act as a pay rise now, and in future earnings, he said, and has the support of the BMA. Dr Taylor commented: “Student loan forgiveness is a strategic investment in the NHS workforce.

Resident doctors

“Relieving this growing debt burden that saddles our student and resident doctors would keep doctors working, improve retention, and put money straight back into the economy. “We at DAUK would urge the Government to look at this issue as a matter of urgency.” Read Dr Taylor’s blog in full on the DAUK Substack, DAUK’s committee members are all volunteers. They campaign and speak in the media about issues facing doctors in their own time. Please support our work by joining DAUK or donating to our GoFundMe.

Specialty training

She is currently working in a trust-grade post, and described trying to secure a higher specialty training position as ‘nerve-wracking’ Dr Novintan, who wants to train in plastic surgery, was unable to find a single training post in her region this year. Nationally, there were only 42 posts for more than 280 applicants. Speaking to the i Paper, she said: “It’s very much on my mind that this is my second time applying. “If I weren’t to get a job this time, that would mean two years out of training,” adding it was a “substantial time to put your life on hold”. According to the i Paper, there were 92,000 applications for just 12,800 specialty training places across the UK in 2024. That’s a ratio of 7.2 to one. In some fields, the competition is even steeper such as 98 applicants per role in sexual health and 74 per post in cardiothoracic surgery.

Medical student

Miss Maya Machesney is DAUK’s medical student co-lead and a final-year student at the University of Sheffield. “It feels like a random lottery,” she said. “We’re worried that getting into specialty training will become less about passion and more about simply getting a job.” DAUK has called for urgent expansion of training places to match the demand. Dr Machesney said: “It’s a massive oversight of workforce planning.” Read the article in full in the i Paper online DAUK committee members are all volunteers and speak to the media about issues facing frontline doctors in their own time. Please support our work by joining DAUK or donating to our GoFundMe.

The letter to Wes Streeting, signed by a number of organisations representing NHS doctors including DAUK, calls for urgent reforms to workforce planning.

The letter highlights the findings of a recent British Medical Association (BMA) survey showing more than half of doctors completing foundation training in 2025 will not have secured employment.

Financial catastrophe

This represents not only a personal and financial catastrophe for thousands of newly qualified doctors, but also a major risk to patient care in an overstretched NHS.

“This is not just a statistic,” the letter states. “It represents a looming workforce crisis in the NHS.

“Thousands of newly qualified doctors, trained at great personal cost and national investment, are poised to enter unemployment while the health service struggles under immense clinical demand.”

The letter cites Health Education England (HEE) figures that in 2025 more than 30,000 doctors applied for just 10,000 training positions.

Training posts

The government has pledged an additional 1,000 training posts over three years, but this figure, while welcome, ‘is far from sufficient’, the letter says.

International recruitment is another key issue. The letter criticises the government’s encouragement of international medical graduates (IMGs) to sit the PLAB (Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board) exam without a guarantee of employment or career development.

It argues this risks creating false hope for doctors from abroad while worsening the UK’s own workforce bottleneck.

The letter also raises concerns over the expansion of medical school places without a corresponding increase in postgraduate training opportunities, as well as the growing reliance on physician assistants (PAs) in roles traditionally held by junior doctors.

Physician assistants

“The fast-track integration of PAs into clinical teams, often in roles traditionally filled by early-career doctors, has caused concern among junior doctors, especially given disparities in training, regulation, and accountability,” it warns.

DAUK and the letter’s signatories are calling for a package of urgent reforms, including:

• Substantially expand specialty training numbers to match domestic graduate output and wider NHS needs
• Regulate PLAB intake so international recruitment aligns with the system’s capacity to provide fair and structured career progression
• Clarify and regulate the role of PAs, ensuring their work complements not replaces early-career doctors
• In rural areas where the demand for healthcare is high compared to the number of available providers, it is essential to ensure a fair distribution of resources. Special focus should be given to geographically underprivileged regions, supported by attractive incentives to encourage healthcare professionals to serve there

The letter warns ‘the combination of over-recruitment, inadequate training opportunities, and unclear workforce planning is leading to disillusionment’.

Many young doctors may be forced to leave the profession or emigrate to countries such as Australia, Canada, and the Gulf states, ‘where their skills are valued and career progression is clearer’.

System failure

The letter concludes: “The NHS stands at a critical juncture. Without decisive intervention, we risk losing a generation of doctors – not from lack of talent or commitment, but because the system failed to offer them a viable future.

The letter requests a formal response from the Health Secretary within three months and offers to meet to discuss potential solutions.

Read the letter in full below.

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Resident doctor training

“It has described how portfolios are built to apply for certain specialisms, leaving applicants ill-equipped to apply for other placements outside their area of interest.” It comes ahead of a short debate in the House of Lords debate on Wednesday (17 July). Lord Lansley (Conservative) will ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the ratio of medical training posts in each specialty relative to the number of foundation year medical students choosing that specialty. Read the medical student committee blogs. Read the House of Lords document. Please support our work by joining DAUK or donating to our GoFundMe

Resident doctors

Many doctors now describe feeling undervalued, overextended, and left without meaningful avenues for redress. Industrial action is never undertaken lightly by healthcare professionals. It reflects a breakdown in dialogue and a growing sense that core concerns — particularly around pay restoration, working conditions, and workforce retention — are not being adequately addressed. While DAUK fully acknowledges public concern over service disruption, we emphasise the greatest threat to patient care remains long-term understaffing and the continued loss of skilled clinicians from the NHS. The current pay dispute must therefore be viewed in the context of wider system fragility.

Workforce sustainability

Remuneration is not simply a contractual issue — it is an essential lever for workforce sustainability. Without urgent and credible action to address this, the health service risks further attrition, diminished training environments, and declining safety standards. DAUK urges the government to re-engage with seriousness and transparency. There remains a clear opportunity to prevent further disruption through an early and substantive offer that demonstrates both recognition and respect for resident doctors’ contributions.

Constructive resolution

DAUK continues to support constructive resolution, rooted in professional solidarity, patient safety, and systemic reform. We stand with our colleagues on the frontline and remain committed to advocating for an NHS that is fair to those who work in it and safe for those who depend upon it.

Please support our work by joining DAUK or donating to our GoFundMe.