Doctors’ leaders have backed away from taking a second day of industrial action to protest over pension reform following a face to face meeting with health secretary Andrew Lansley.

A decision was taken at a meeting of the full BMA Council on 18 July to pursue other options on the issue of pension reform, namely, to join further talks with other health unions.

The BMA, however, said it would increase its campaigning to achieve improvements in the longer term and was not ruling out more industrial action at a later date.

The government plans to reform the NHS pension scheme, meaning that doctors and other NHS staff would have to pay more, work longer, and get less …