Doctor strike during flu outbreak would be ‘beyond belief’, says Starmer

Sir Keir Starmer has warned junior doctors not to go ahead with “reckless” strikes planned for next week, saying it was “incredible” this could happen during a flu pandemic.

The Prime Minister said the NHS was at its “most precarious moment” since the coronavirus pandemic as flu cases rose across England and strikes would put the healthcare system and its patients in “serious danger”.

Doctors’ union the British Medical Association (BMA) is polling its members to see whether they are willing to call off the strike and the results will be announced on Monday.

However, if they vote against it, there will be a five-day strike by junior doctors. It will start two days later on Wednesday, December 17th.

A BMA spokesman said the government could stop the strike by addressing pay, conditions and trust issues with a credible offer.

Experts say the flu arrived early this winter, and it looks like a particularly bad season because of the new mutated version of the virus circulating.

Many people now call it the “super flu,” but it is neither more severe nor harder to treat.

NHS England said an average of 2,660 patients a day in England were hospitalized with flu last week, the highest number for this time of year and a 55% increase on the previous week.

Figures also show flu cases are rising in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Health officials said that children and young people were especially affected by the epidemic.

Writing in the GuardianSir Keir said strikes “shouldn’t be happening” and said junior doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, should agree to a deal to avoid industrial action.

Sir Keir said that in addition to the government’s new offer, they also gave the BMA the chance to postpone the strikes until after Christmas.

“Don’t get me wrong; of course I would prefer them to be cancelled… But in the circumstances, I wanted to make sure we left no stone unturned in our efforts to protect the NHS,” he said.

The BMA said it would ask its members whether the government’s offer would be enough to end Wednesday’s strikes.

If members say yes, they will be given time to consider the proposal in more detail and a formal follow-up referendum will be held to end the dispute altogether.

The proposal aims to address the problems of some doctors struggling to find work and provide more training places for newly qualified paramedics to progress their careers.

Health Minister Wes Streeting made a similar intervention Warning strikes and rising flu patients will create a “double trouble” for the NHS, Sir Keir was told on Friday.

But Chris Streather, the NHS’s medical director in London, said the flu situation was “well within the limits” of what the NHS could handle and hospitals were better prepared for major disease outbreaks since the Covid pandemic.