Jeremy Hunt is willing to "pause" the introduction of new contracts if junior doctors agree to talks.

Writing to the chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges today, the health secretary said the Department of Health remained committed to the August introduction of the contract but was willing to listen to doctors.

Mr Hunt added that he expected the discussions to be based on the contractual issues outstanding since February and not on revisiting the 90 per cent of issues that were agreed, including the cost neutrality of the contract.

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The academy had earlier called for a five-day pause on the Government’s imposition of a new junior doctors contract to allow for fresh talks and had also asked the British Medical Association (BMA), the doctors’ union, to suspend the threat of further industrial action in an attempt to break the deadlock.

The academy comprises all of the UK’s medical royal colleges and faculties, whose presidents meet regularly to discuss how to shape healthcare policy.

Professor Dame Sue Bailey, chair of the academy, said: “A five-day pause without ‘ifs, buts or maybes’ and with both sides in the dispute publicly committing to a serious attempt to reach a resolution through genuine dialogue is obviously the only way out of this impasse.”

She called on Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Dr Johann Malawana, chairman of the BMA junior doctors committee to “take a deep breath, dial down the rhetoric and get back to the table for talks”.

The BMA last week staged unprecedented strike action including the withdrawal of emergency cover in its long-running dispute with the Government.

In his letter to the academy, Mr Hunt wrote: “In response to your call for a five-day negotiating period to consider the process of introducing a new contract and suspension of the threat of further industrial action we are willing to play our part.

"We will pause introduction of the new contract for five days from Monday should the Junior Doctors' Committee agree to return to talks.

"I have already made clear that we are happy to address with the BMA a range of non-contractual issues."

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However, Mr Hunt said that he would only agree to talks if the Junior Doctors' Committee (JDC) was willing to negotiate on the issues of unsocial hours and Saturday pay.

In the letter, he continued: "Despite numerous concessions made by Sir David Dalton on this issue, they would not consider any move away from their initial position.

"In light of this I hope you can agree with our position that any talks should not proceed unless we have written agreement from the JDC that they will agree to negotiate substantively and in good faith on this single biggest outstanding area of disagreement and that they would ratify and recommend any negotiated agreement to their members."

He added: "This is a significant show of good faith by the Government in order to break the deadlock.

"We now need the BMA to agree to negotiate on Saturday pay, the biggest area of difference between us, in order for the talks to proceed next week."

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Prior to the April 26 and 27 strikes, Mr Hunt refused to re-enter negotiations despite the BMA saying it would call off the strike if further talks were held.

The union has held three strikes since Mr Hunt announced he would impose a new contract by August and claimed the union had refused “point blank” to discuss reforms.

Under the contracts junior doctors will get an increase in their basic pay, but will have to work more weekends. Guaranteed pay rises linked to time in the job will be axed and bonus pay for working unsociable hours will be curbed.