As medics gathered on picket lines this morning for the first day of strikes, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the doctors’ union was acting like a ‘cartel’
Furious Wes Streeting has warned resident doctors to own the damage their five-day strike will do to progress made in cutting NHS waiting lists.
As medics gathered on picket lines this morning for the first day of strikes, the Health Secretary warned the industrial action will set the Government back as he said the doctors’ union was acting like a “cartel”. The five-day action is the 13th walkout by the British Medical Association (BMA) since March 2023, with the last strike in July estimated to have cost the NHS £300million.
In a tense exchange live on LBC radio this morning, Mr Streeting was told by resident doctor Niraj: “Of course we all care about patient safety. None of us wants to be on strike. I would rather be at work today.” But he told the Health Secretary his offer to the BMA was not enough.
A furious Mr Streeting hit back: “Don’t tell me you don’t want to be out on strike because that’s exactly where you are. You made that choice, own it and own the damage it will do to your patients.”
READ MORE: Wes Streeting forced to watch video of himself making eye-popping claim on LBC radio
Striking doctors speak at the picket line outside St Thomas Hospital London
Niraj, from Harrow, told him: “Why should we as resident doctors believe that you value us? And why should we take you seriously when the proposals that you’ve put forward to end industrial action are simply what anybody would expect from a reasonable employer, and that should already be in place.
“So I mean, things like funding our mandatory exams and portfolio and college fees and ensuring that there are enough training places to make sure that the public have enough consultants in the future. So all of those things, in my opinion, should already be in place. They shouldn’t be a bargaining chip to try to end this dispute.”
Mr Streeting said: “To hold patients to ransom and to be out on strike, setting back the NHS because you don’t think we’re going fast enough and because the leadership of your union are not honest enough that some of this change takes time is extremely irresponsible. It is extremely unnecessary.
“And the other listeners to this show who have not had a 28.9% pay rise, whose taxes are paying for our National Health Service and who are receiving a substandard service, not least because of the damage that these rounds of industrial action are doing, I think they will be quite shocked, actually, that against the backdrop of a Health Secretary that wants to work with you, who acknowledges these are challenges and wants to address them, and has given you the biggest pay rise in the public sector two years in a row, I think people will be shocked by the BMA’s reprehensible behaviour.”
The strike comes as polling in The Times suggested 48% of resident doctors wanted the action called off, and only 33% thought it should go ahead.
The last time resident doctors went on strike, more than 54,000 procedures and appointments needed to be cancelled or rescheduled, despite the NHS maintaining 93% of planned activity.
NHS Confederation chief executive, Matthew Taylor, said the BMA “must recognise that these strikes are disproportionate, given the current financial environment and the fact resident doctors have already had one of the biggest pay rises in the public sector.”
He said: “We would urge them to call them off, moderate their demands to something achievable and re-enter negotiations.”