Wes Streeting: More junior doctor strikes will put NHS ‘in jeopardy'
More junior doctor strikes will put the future of the NHS in 'jeopardy', Wes Streeting has said.
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced after a meeting with the Health Secretary on Friday that its doctors would vote on returning to the picket line.
This comes less than 10 months after a 22 per cent pay rise and an agreement that the professionals would be referred to as 'resident doctors' as opposed to junior doctors.
The BMA said it was asking members if they wanted to strike again after Mr Streeting would not commit to increasing their pay back to 2008 levels over the next two years.
The Health Secretary suggested that the resident doctors' demands of a more than 10 per cent rise were unaffordable.
He said the decision to vote on striking again was 'premature' and 'disappointing that the ballot for strike action is going out before they've received their pay offer'.
Mr Streeting also said more disruption would keep the NHS in a state of 'jeopardy' and urged doctors to work with him rather than play into the hands of political opponents.
'Hold your horses'
When asked what he would say to the doctors considering industrial action, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'We haven't made the pay offer yet, so I would just say to the BMA, hold your horses for a moment, wait until you get the pay offer.
'We know that the NHS is in jeopardy, not just because of the scale of the crisis we inherited, but because we have political opponents in Reform and the Conservative Party who do not even believe in the NHS.
' Nigel Farage said very clearly during the election campaign, he does not believe in a taxpayer-funded NHS.'
He urged doctors to 'work with the party of the NHS to help us fix the NHS' and said this would happen 'if doctors are on the front line, not the picket line'.
He noted during an interview with Times Radio that the resident doctors were asking for a pay rise of '8 or 9 per cent', plus inflation, which is currently at 2.6 per cent. The Health Secretary added: 'I can't honestly say we'll be able to deliver that year-on-year.'
Mr Streeting added that when the doctors 'receive their pay offer, they will see this is a Government that is moving their pay, their conditions and their career progression in the right direction'.
On Friday, the BMA said three weeks had passed since it warned the Government of the 'consequences of the absence of a reasonable, timely pay offer' for 2025-26.
Its ballot for industrial action will open on May 27 and close on July 7.
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