Jack Fletcher believes a deal with the government could have already been reached if Wes Streeting had focused more on negotiations rather than the BMA's internal union processes.

A 2016 contract change imposed in England reduced the number of pay points for resident doctors to four, covering the entire period from graduation to becoming a consultant, specialist, or GP.

The BMA wrote to the Health Secretary approximately 24 hours after the most recent strike ended to resume negotiations.

A proposal for creating new training posts involves converting 1,000 locally employed jobs this year, followed by a potential 1,750 conversions in each of the subsequent two years.

All members of the BMA's resident doctors committee, including its chair, work clinically in the NHS and do not perform trade union duties full-time.

Unlike other NHS staff such as consultants, nurses, and managers, resident doctors in England do not receive substantive employment contracts from day one.

The UK government reduced its investment offer to resident doctors and extended the proposed deal's timeframe to three years at the last minute of negotiations.

Wes Streeting was not personally present in the negotiating room during recent talks, although his team was.

There are approximately 28,000 locally employed doctor jobs across the NHS in England.

Doctors in England who do not have a training number are often employed on short-term contracts of three, six, or twelve months, which lack pay and career progression.

The government's latest offer to resident doctors contained language and mechanisms that were not strong enough to guarantee access to substantive contracts.

NHS pathology services are struggling locally due to a shortage of consultants in specialties like anaesthetics, radiology, and histopathology.

The BMA's resident doctors committee conducted approximately 11 rounds of strike action during 2023.

Some NHS employers are allegedly ignoring legal obligations by terminating contracts early and not offering redundancy payments to locally employed doctors with over two years of service.