Senior doctors in England accept new pay offer

LONDON (Reuters) -Senior doctors in England have voted to accept an improved offer from the government on pay and conditions.

The British Medical Association (BMA) trade union said on Friday about 83% of senior doctors, also known as consultants, voted in favour of the offer, on a 62% turnout.

The BMA, which had around 190,000 members as of last year, had recommended that senior doctors vote to accept the new offer.

Strike action over the last two years has heaped more pressure on the NHS, where more than 7 million patients remain on waiting lists for hospital treatment, leading to thousands of cancelled appointments and procedures.

It has also added to pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of an election expected later this year.

Sunak, whose Conservatives are heavily trailing the opposition Labour, said in February his government had not done enough to meet one of his key pledges of cutting NHS waiting lists.

While NHS nurses ended strike action last year following a pay deal, a long-running pay dispute with junior doctors, who staged a five-day strike in February, remains ongoing.

(Reporting by Farouq Suleiman and William James, Writing by Sachin Ravikumar;)

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