New health secretary Wes Streeting to meet junior doctors amid ongoing strikes

New Health Secretary Wes Streeting will meet junior doctors about strike action today.

The Labour cabinet minister, who was previously shadow health secretary before Labour won the election last Friday morning, will hold talks with the British Medical Association (BMA) Junior Doctors Committee for negotiations to end their long-running dispute over pay.

Both sides, the BMA and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), are playing down the significance of this meeting. We have been told not to expect any major announcements. Nobody is going to come out after the post lunch meeting in Victoria and declare that the 20-month dispute is over.

But it is a significant first step.

It is the first time Mr Streeting will meet Junior Doctor Committee co-chairs Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi face-to-face.

This will give the BMA leaders a chance to gauge just how serious the new health secretary is about bringing the strikes to an end.

One of the biggest barriers to advancing negotiations with the previous government was the lack of trust between the BMA and former health secretaries Steve Barclay and later Victoria Atkins.

The BMA felt neither had the full backing from 10 and 11 Downing Street and there was no genuine intent to resolve the dispute.

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It should be different with this health secretary given how much the prime minister has talked about fixing the NHS during the election campaign.

Yesterday, Mr Streeting showed his determination to meet with frontline professionals when he joined Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, on a visit to the Abbey Medical Centre in Abbey Wood, Bexley, south east London.

Mr Streeting has described the junior doctor negotiations as a journey and not an event. The junior doctors say they are open to a multi-year pay deal. That gives both some room to manoeuvre.

The health secretary will know the resolve of the BMA as he has watched this dispute drag on over the last year and a half.

The junior doctors are insistent on a pay restoration deal that will see 2008 equivalent salaries. The new health secretary will likely say that is unaffordable right now but show some evidence that an end goal can be worked towards.

It is in the new government's interest to bring these strikes to an end. Labour pledged 40,000 new weekly appointments to bring down the waiting list. With more strikes that is simply not possible.

While both sides try to manage expectations they know the clock is ticking. The BMA mandate for strike action ends in September. That means a fresh ballot would have to take place in August. That's next month.

Winter preparations are already under way in trusts across the country and health leaders want to be able to plan without the threat of more industrial action.

So yes, while these talks are just the start of the process many will be seeing and hoping this is the beginning of the end.