Health secretary’s fury at ‘self-indulgent’ five-day doctors’ strike as NHS faces Christmas flu crisis
The health minister has accused doctors who voted to continue a five-day strike in the run-up to Christmas as “self-indulgent” and “dangerous”.
Junior doctors of the British Medical Association (BMA) flatly rejected Wes Streeting’s last-minute offer to call off the strike; paramedics are preparing to join the picket lines starting at 7am on Wednesday.
The move led to warnings of a “very difficult Christmas” for the NHS amid fears the strike would put patients at risk due to a rise in “super flu” cases sweeping the country. Flu cases in hospitals in England are at a record high for this time of year.
The Prime Minister said he was “gutted” by the news and warned they had lost public sympathy for the dispute, as he joined Mr Streeting in calling for doctors to ignore their unions and go to work anyway this week.
Mr Streeting warned that the dates just before the Christmas bank holidays represented a “different dimension of risk” to previous strikes.
He accused the BMA of choosing the timing to “damage the NHS at a time of maximum danger” and lashed out at their refusal to delay until January.
“There is no need for these strikes to continue this week and it reveals the BMA’s shocking disregard for patient safety and other NHS staff,” he said. “These strikes are self-indulgent, irresponsible and dangerous.”
He continued: “I am appealing to ordinary junior doctors to report to work this week. There is a different risk in striking now. Abandoning your patients when they need them most goes against everything a career in medicine entails.”
Mr Streeting had offered the union a new deal that included greater access to specialist training positions and money for costs such as exam fees, but crucially no extra pay.
However, the offer was rejected by the BMA on the grounds that it was “too little, too late”. With a participation rate of 65 percent, 83 percent of doctors voted to continue the strike, while 17 percent voted against it.
Dr Jack Fletcher, chairman of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, said: “Tens of thousands of frontline doctors have come together to say ‘no’ to what is clearly too little, too late.
“This week’s strike is still entirely avoidable; the health secretary must work with us in the short time we have left to come up with a credible proposal to end this jobs crisis and avoid the real-term wage cuts he has put forward in 2026.”
Sir Keir condemned the strikes as “irresponsible”.
He told MPs on the House of Commons Liaison Committee that he was “so exhausted”. Ten out of ten. This is always irresponsible, especially right now.
He added: “This follows a very significant pay rise over the last year. There is a deal we have put on the table that can be taken forward and so I think this is irresponsible action by the BMA, and not for the first time.”
He added: “I’m calling on doctors themselves to push back against the BMA. They’re losing public sympathy. They’re losing the support of their colleagues.”
The BMA said it “remains committed to ensuring patient safety” during the strike. But hospital leaders said the strikes came because the NHS “everyone needs help”.
Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, said: “This vote is a bitter pill that will inevitably harm patients and the NHS.
“We hoped the government’s recently updated offer would be enough to prevent another strike at a time when so many people are suffering from flu and the NHS needs everyone to step up.
“Trust leaders and staff will now work to minimize the impact of the strike, but unfortunately this will mean further disruption and delays and a very difficult Christmas for the health service.”
Rory Deighton, director of acute and community care at the NHS Confederation, described the vote as a “bitter disappointment”.
Mr Streeting told broadcasters it was “now clear what these strikes are really about, which is the BMA demanding a further 26 per cent pay rise on top of the 28.9 per cent pay rise they already have”.
He said he had offered to postpone the strikes until January “because of the huge risk to patients and the NHS at the worst possible time”.
A YouGov poll last week found opposition to the strikes was at a record high; The British were 53 percent to 38 percent against.
Figures published by the health service last week show flu cases have risen by more than 55 per cent in a week. Some hospitals across the country are asking staff, patients and visitors to wear face masks to prevent the spread of flu, while others are moving in and out of critical incident status due to the large number of people attending A&E.
Shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew said: “We Conservatives warned Labor repeatedly last year that they would set a dangerous precedent by delivering inflation-busting pay rises. “And now we see the consequences of their capitulation, with more disruption, more demand and no end in sight.”
