Christmas strikes could collapse NHS with flu surge unlike anything since pandemic, says Streeting | NHS
Wes Streeting has told junior doctors that strikes and a surge in flu cases over the Christmas period could be the “Jenga piece” that forces the NHS to collapse.
The health secretary said the NHS was facing “a challenge unlike anything it has seen since the pandemic” and called on junior doctors to accept the government’s offer and end their actions.
He said: “The whole NHS team is working around the clock to keep the show on the road. But this is an incredibly precarious situation. Christmas attacks could be the Jenga piece that brings the tower down. That’s why I’m appealing directly to junior doctors to take up the government’s offer.”
NHS figures published on Thursday showed flu cases are at a record high for this time of year after a week-on-week rise of 55% to an average of 2,660 patients in hospital each day last week.
Don’t write in the TimesStreeting said the number of patients in hospitals in England could triple at peak and described the scenes in hospital as “inexcusable”.
Dr Chris Streather, NHS England’s regional medical director, said the impact of flu admissions on hospitals was “pretty bad” but it was “not unlike the scale” of the Covid outbreak.
Asked whether rumors of NHS collapse were exaggerated, Streather told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The NHS is coping with it at the moment. Flu rates are still rising.”
He added: “It’s within the limits of what we can handle. One of the things we’ve learned during the pandemic is that our preparations to deal with major respiratory virus outbreaks have gotten better. During this time we’ve increased the number of critical care or intensive care beds, so we’re better prepared. And that’s on a different scale than what we were facing in March 2020, where you have to prepare for the worst.”
Streather said there were 2,500 patients admitted to hospitals in England with flu, a 55 per cent increase on the previous week and the equivalent of three major hospitals being full with flu patients.
“This is a major problem,” he said. “This is nothing like the scale of the 2020 pandemic. And to not cause alarm right now, I think we need to use our language to ensure people are doing the right healthy behaviors.”
The British Medical Association (BMA) leadership’s cancellation of planned Christmas strikes would “give the NHS certainty this week as we tackle the flu epidemic”, the health secretary said.
The BMA said it would consult members via an online survey on whether a new deal from the government would be enough to end the strikes next week. The online survey will end on Monday, two days before the five-day strike begins.
The union said the new proposal includes new legislation to ensure indigenous doctors in training have priority in specialist training roles, an increase in specialist training posts over the next three years (1,000 of which will start in 2026) and funding compulsory examination and royal college membership fees for junior doctors.
