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The Independent
5 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
Streeting warns doctors must feel ‘pain' of strikes to prevent further action
Striking doctors must feel the 'pain' of taking industrial action to prevent the spread of walkouts in other public sectors, Wes Streeting has warned. The health secretary has instructed hospitals to minimise disruption to appointments as safely as possible, as up to 50,000 junior doctors stage a five-day walkout in the latest row over pay. Resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, have called for a 29 per cent pay increase and have taken to the picket lines across England from 7am on Friday, as part of a five-day walkout due to last until Wednesday. In a transcript seen and reported by The Telegraph, Mr Streeting told NHS leaders: 'It is really important that these strikes are not pain-free for resident doctors or the BMA, because otherwise we will see broader contagion across the BMA and potentially broader contagion across the public sector.' It has also been reported that doctors will be warned that repeated absences from duties could slow career progression. It comes after Mr Streeting sent a personal letter to NHS resident doctors, saying: 'I deeply regret the position we now find ourselves in.' The health secretary said that while he cannot pledge a bigger pay rise, he has been committed to progress to improve doctors' working lives. He also said he does not now believe the British Medical Association's resident doctors committee (RDC) has 'engaged with me in good faith' over bids to avert the strike. Members of the public have been urged to come forward for NHS care during the walkout, and are being asked to attend appointments unless told they are cancelled. GP surgeries will open as usual and urgent care and A&E will continue to be available, alongside NHS 111, NHS England said.
Times
5 days ago
- Health
- Times
Doctors' strikes live: thousands start five-day walkout over pay
The leader of the British Medical Association previously claimed that Britain was becoming a fascist state where dissidents were labelled 'traitors and enemies of the people'. Dr Tom Dolphin, 46, chairman of the union behind the latest round of strikes, has made controversial comments including likening Luigi Mangione, the alleged murderer of a healthcare boss, to Jesus, and criticising Brexit. Dolphin, a former Labour Party activist, was elected to the post in June after developing a reputation as a hardliner over his two decades in the BMA. • Read in full: The leaders behind the 29 per cent pay demands Doctors already earn a 'good wage', Peter Kyle, the science, innovation and technology minister, has told Times Radio as the BMA strike action begins today. He said: 'I can't speak for the leadership of the British Medical Association sadly, but I do urge them to put the patient's interests at heart but also the interests of our entire country. 'People do not support this strike. A 28.9 per cent offer, which was agreed last year, is an astonishing achievement for those doctors. They should bank it, they should get to work … we need to fix the NHS and get it fit for the future.' Sir Keir Starmer made a last-minute appeal to resident doctors, saying the strikes would 'cause real damage'. 'The route the BMA resident doctors' committee have chosen will mean everyone loses. My appeal to resident doctors is this: do not follow the BMA leadership down this damaging road. Our NHS and your patients need you,' he wrote in The Times. • Read in full: Junior doctors should break ranks with the BMA leadership Thousands of resident doctors have begun a five-day strike after talks with the government collapsed over pay, with picket lines at Guy's Hospital in London, Royal Victoria Hospital in Newcastle, Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge and Leeds General Infirmary. Members of the public have been urged to come forward for NHS care during the walkout, and are being asked to attend appointments unless told they are cancelled. GP surgeries will open as usual and urgent care and A&E will continue to be available, alongside NHS 111, NHS England said.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Militant doctors start five-day strike demanding a 29% pay rise TODAY - despite PM's warning they're doing 'real damage to the NHS' and will drive up waiting lists
Thousands of resident doctors have begun a five-day strike in pursuit of a further 29 per cent pay rise today after talks with the Government collapsed over pay. Resident doctors have taken to picket lines across England from 7am this morning in a move which is expected to disrupt patient care. Members of the public have been urged to come forward for NHS care during the walkout, and are being asked to attend appointments unless told they are cancelled. GP surgeries will open as usual and urgent care and A&E will continue to be available, alongside NHS 111, NHS England said. Sir Keir Starmer made a last-minute appeal to resident doctors, saying the strikes would 'cause real damage'. 'The route the BMA Resident Doctors Committee have chosen will mean everyone loses. My appeal to resident doctors is this: do not follow the BMA leadership down this damaging road. Our NHS and your patients need you,' he wrote in The Times. He added: 'Most people do not support these strikes. They know they will cause real damage.' 'Behind the headlines are the patients whose lives will be blighted by this decision. The frustration and disappointment of necessary treatment delayed. And worse, late diagnoses and care that risks their long-term health. 'It's not fair on patients. It's not fair on NHS staff who will have to step in for cover for those taking action. And it is not fair on taxpayers. 'These strikes threaten to turn back the clock on progress we have made in rebuilding the NHS over the last year, choking off the recovery.' Sir Keir also said waiting lists were 'now at their lowest level in two years, and for the first time in 17 years, waiting lists fell in both April and May', but added that the BMA leadership puts this 'progress at risk'. It comes after Wes Streeting sent a personal letter to NHS resident doctors, saying: 'I deeply regret the position we now find ourselves in.' The Health Secretary said while he cannot pledge a bigger pay rise, he has been committed to progress to improve doctors' working lives. He also said he does not now believe the British Medical Association's resident doctors committee (RDC) has 'engaged with me in good faith' over bids to avert the strike. In the letter sent on Thursday afternoon to resident doctors, Mr Streeting said: 'I wanted to write to you personally about the situation we find ourselves in. 'This Government came into office, just over a year ago, with a great deal of sympathy for the arguments that resident doctors were making about pay, working conditions and career progression. 'I was determined to build a genuine partnership with the... RDC to make real improvements on all three fronts. 'We have made progress together. While some of my critics in Parliament and the media believe I was naive to agree such a generous pay deal to end the strikes last year, I stand by that choice.' Mr Streeting said resident doctors have now had an average 28.9% pay award under Labour. He added: 'Strike action should always be a last resort - not the action you take immediately following a 28.9% pay award from a Government that is committed to working with you to further improve your lives at work. 'While I've been honest with the BMA RDC that we cannot afford to go further on pay this year, I was prepared to negotiate on areas related to your conditions at work and career progression, including measures that would put money back in the pockets of resident doctors.' Mr Streeting said that based on talks with the BMA aimed at averting strikes, he had been determined to tackle the 'arduous' training pathway, and 'I made it clear that I was prepared to agree actions to reduce the costs you face as a result of training'. He said he had also been looking at the cost of equipment, food and drink, and 'was prepared to explore how many further training posts could be created - additional to the 1,000 already announced - as early as possible'. Mr Streeting said talks had been progressing but 'I no longer believe that they (RDC) have engaged with me in good faith'. The Health Secretary continued: 'I deeply regret the position we now find ourselves in. 'The public, and I am sure many of you, do not understand the rush to strike action.' Mr Streeting later said there is 'no getting around the fact that these strikes will hit the progress we are making in turning the NHS around'. He added: 'But I am determined to keep disruption to patients at a minimum and continue with the recovery we have begun delivering in the last 12 months after a decade-and-a-half of neglect. We will not be knocked off course.' Writing in the Telegraph, Mr Streeting said: 'The BMA's leadership, who I believe are badly letting down both their members and the health service, will find that the costs of the strikes are that they now have a Secretary of State who has both less appetite and less ability to work with them on the kind of measures we were having constructive discussions about last week that would materially improve the working lives of resident doctors and leave them with more money in their pockets.' Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, told the PA news agency health staff will be working 'flat out' to see as many patients as they can during the strike, after NHS England made clear it wants as much pre-planned care as possible to continue. He said: 'Striking doctors should think carefully if they are really doing the right thing for patients, for the NHS and for themselves... 'The strike will throttle hard-won progress to cut waiting lists, but NHS trust leaders and staff will be working flat out to see that as many patients as possible get the care they need.' It is understood that NHS chief Sir Jim Mackey had told trust leaders to try to crack down on resident doctors' ability to work locum shifts during the strike and earn money that way. Leaders have also been encouraged to seek 'derogations', where resident doctors are required to work during the strikes, in more circumstances, the Health Service Journal (HSJ) reported. Rory Deighton, acute and community care director at the NHS Confederation, said: 'These strikes were not inevitable - the Government entered negotiations with the BMA in good faith... 'The impact of these strikes and the distress they will cause patients rests with the BMA.' The BMA has argued that real-terms pay has fallen by around 20% since 2008, and is pushing for full 'pay restoration'. The union is taking out national newspaper adverts on Friday, saying it wants to 'lay bare the significant pay difference between a resident doctor and their non-medically qualified assistants'. It said the adverts 'make clear that while a newly qualified doctor's assistant is taking home over £24 per hour, a newly qualified doctor with years of medical school experience is on just £18.62 per hour'. RDC co-chairs Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt said in a statement: 'Pay erosion has now got to the point where a doctor's assistant can be paid up to 30% more than a resident doctor. 'That's going to strike most of the public that use the NHS as deeply unfair. 'Resident doctors are not worth less than they were 17 years ago, but unfortunately they've seen their pay erode by more than 21% in the last two decades. 'We're not working 21% less hard so why should our pay suffer? 'We're asking for an extra £4 per hour to restore our pay. It's a small price to pay for those who may hold your life in their hands.' The statement said Mr Streeting had had every opportunity to prevent the strike, but added: 'We want these strikes to be the last we ever have to participate in. 'We are asking Mr Streeting to get back around the table with a serious proposal as soon as possible - this time with the intent to bring this to a just conclusion.' Resident doctors are qualified doctors in clinical training. They have completed a medical degree and can have up to nine years of working experience as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to five years of working and gaining experience to become a GP. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said the framing of the BMA advertising campaign was 'disingenuous'. 'Given their repeated use of debunked ways of measuring inflation to overstate their pay claims, it follows a pattern of deliberately misleading calculations from the BMA,' a spokesperson said. 'The average annual earnings per first year resident doctor last year was £43,275. That is significantly more, in a resident doctor's first year, than the average full-time worker in this country earns. 'Resident doctors in their second year earned an average of £52,300 last year and at the top end of the scale, resident doctors in specialty training earned an average almost £75,000 - this is set to increase further with this year's pay award.' The Conservatives accused Labour of having 'opened the door' to fresh strikes with a 'spineless surrender to union demands last year'. Shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew said: 'They handed out inflation-busting pay rises without reform, and now the BMA are back for more. 'They are disrupting care, ignoring patients and gambling with lives. 'This is a betrayal of the NHS and those who rely on it. 'The public deserves hospitals where the doctors are on the frontline rather than the picket line. 'But every day Labour refuses to stand up to union overreach, Britain moves closer to a health service run on the unions' terms rather than the patients'.'
BBC News
5 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
NHS seeks to defy doctor strike and keep services running
Health Secretary Wes Streeting is promising to keep NHS services running as a five-day walkout by resident doctors gets underway in said the impact would be kept to a minimum after NHS England ordered hospitals to only cancel treatments in exceptional doctors are covering for resident doctors, the new term for junior doctors, who are striking for the 12th time in the pay previous strikes, the focus has been squarely on staffing emergency care - but this time the NHS wants to keep non-urgent services going as much as BMA warned this risks stretching staff too thinly, saying the government had every opportunity to stop the walkout. Writing in the Times ahead of the strike starting at 07:00 BST, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer urged resident doctors not to follow their union down the "damaging road" of strike action. Despite the efforts being put in by NHS leaders, he said the walkout would cause a "huge loss for the NHS and the country," as he criticised the British Medical Association (BMA) for "rushing" into Keir said the walkouts threatened "to turn back the clock on progress we have made in rebuilding the NHS over the last year".Streeting said: "There is no getting around the fact that these strikes will hit the progress we are making on turning the NHS round."But he added: "I am determined to keep disruption to patients to a minimum." Members of the public have been urged to come forward for NHS care during the walkout, and are being asked to attend appointments unless told they are surgeries will open as usual, and urgent care and A&E will continue to be available, alongside NHS 111, NHS England strike is going ahead after talks between the government and BMA broke down on talks were focused on non-pay issues, such as the cost of exam fees and career progression, after Streeting had said pay was not open to BMA says, despite a 5.4% average pay rise this year following a 22% increase over the previous two years, pay is still down by a fifth since 2008, once inflation is taken into resident doctor co-leaders Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt said: "Resident doctors are not worth less than they were 17 years ago. "Restoring pay remains the simplest and most effective route toward improving our working lives."Mr Streeting had every opportunity to prevent this strike going ahead, but he chose not to take it." Previous walkouts have led to mass cancellations, with more than one million appointments and treatments cancelled during resident doctor strikes which first began in March hospitals were only able to deliver half their normal amount of routine care on strike NHS sources said, this time, some hospitals were planning full schedules after the new approach of prioritising both emergency and non-urgent care. "We've learnt lessons from the past strikes - this one will feel very different," they Meghana Pandit, a director at NHS England, said: "It's really important to reduce cancellations, because people have been waiting, sometimes for months for their routine hip replacement or hysterectomy or any appointment, and actually rescheduling the appointments impacts on them and leads to physical and psychological harm."But she said it was inevitable there would still be some disruption, however she warned patients to still use the NHS if they need it. While the majority of resident doctors work in hospitals, some GP practices and community services could also be of those who has been impacted is Hassnain Shahid, 32, from Bradford, whose three-year-old daughter has had her lung surgery on Monday has a rare lung condition which means that if she catches a cough or cold she could be at serious risk."It's been an emotional rollercoaster. It's very frustrating," said Hassnain. The BMA, though, has warned the new approach could cause even greater problems and risk safety. It has written to NHS England to say that staff who are working could be stretched too thinly. The union said it would be better to significantly reduce non-urgent care as has happened previously. Tory shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew said the strikes threatened to drag hospitals into chaos and leave patients "dangerously exposed"."Labour's spineless surrender to union demands last year opened the door to this. "They handed out inflation-busing pay rises without reform and now the BMA is back for more."But Rory Deighton, of the NHS Confederation, which represents frontline health managers, said: "The impact of these strikes and the distress they will cause patients rests with the BMA."
Daily Mirror
21-07-2025
- Daily Mirror
BREAKING: Mum who shook her own baby to death jailed after giving court sickening excuse
A mother who shook her four-month-old daughter to death has been jailed for 15 years. Melissa Wilband was accused of the manslaughter of little Lexi Wilband, alongside her then-partner Jack Wheeler. Bristol Crown Court heard baby Lexi collapsed at her home in Newent in the Forest of Dean in April 2020, and died in hospital six days later. Tests showed Lexi had suffered bleeding on her brain, likely caused by being violently shaken, both recently and on at least one earlier occasion, the jury was told. They also heard that on the night Lexi died, her mum spent three hours with her before leaving to go to sleep in a different part of the hospital. Prosecuting, Jane Osborne KC said Wilband was aware that her baby might die through the night but did not stay at her bedside. She said: "A staff nurse held Lexi's hand through the night and remained with her. "On the morning of April 18, Lexi seemed to have longer pauses in her breathing. Ms Wilband was told to attend the ward. She arrived just after Lexi had ceased to show any signs of life and had stopped breathing." The manslaughter case against Wheeler was dropped part way through the trial when no evidence was offered by the prosecution. He was also found not guilty of a lesser charge of causing or allowing the death of a child. During the trial, jurors were told that 28-year-old Wilband and Mr Wheeler were in a relationship for about three years but Lexi was conceived with another man in early 2019. The court heard Wilband told Wheeler he was the baby's biological father and presented him with a fake DNA certificate that claimed he was "100%" the child's dad. A genuine DNA test after Lexi's birth in November 2019 confirmed that Mr Wheeler was not biologically related to her but he remained with Wilband and brought up Lexi as if she were his own child. Jurors heard how Wilband and Wheeler had a volatile relationship, and she took cocaine just six days after Lexi was born. It was alleged that she would take the drug in bed, with Lexi in the Moses basket alongside her. On April 12, 2020 the mum made a call to NHS 111 from the new-build council house where she lived with Mr Wheeler and Lexi. She claimed Lexi had stopped breathing while in her bouncer chair. Lexi was taken to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and was intubated, with Wilband asked if she would like to hold her baby before the procedure took place. She declined to do so. The infant was then transferred to Bristol Children's Hospital, where Wilband told medics that Mr Wheeler had been carrying Lexi in her bouncer chair and was swinging it. A decision was made to switch off Lexi's ventilator on April 17, following the results of an MRI scan. She died on April 18, aged just four months. A post-mortem examination gave Lexi's cause of death as bleeding to the brain, caused by a non-accidental traumatic event such as someone "shaking her violently", the prosecutor told the court. Further tests found the areas of bleeding in Lexi's eyes were "too numerous to count", she added. Giving evidence, Wilband denied ever shaking Lexi and said she had a "bad wrist" that meant she was physically unable to shake her. Wiliband told the court: "In the corner of my eye, I saw Lexi kind of throw herself back in her bouncer." She said she then took Lexi out of the bouncer, undressed her and put her in the bath. 'She was fine, she was giggling, she was splashing about in the water,' she said. After the bath, the couple put a film on the television in the living room and Wilband went upstairs to hoover their bedroom. 'Jack was shouting to me, saying that she has gone floppy and she is going blue,' Wilband told the court. 'I turned the hoover off and ran downstairs as quickly as I could. Lexi was in Jack's arms. She looked very pale. She was floppy. 'He put his fingers in her mouth to check to see if there was any blockage. He said there was nothing there so he turned her over and started patting her back. I was panicking.' Miranda Moore KC, representing Wheeler, suggested to Wilband that she had shaken her daughter. She replied: 'I did nothing to my daughter. 'How could I shake my daughter when I have a bad wrist? I couldn't pick her up properly, how could I shake her? I never shook my daughter. That was a heavy-handed person. He was kind and gentle but he has heavy hands. 'My daughter was my life. I never killed my daughter, I am telling you.' Today, sentencing her to 15 years, sentencing her today, The Honourable Mr Justice Saini said Lexi was a "healthy baby" and a delightful and smiley girl." He told Wilband: "You killed Lexi by violently shaking her. While bathing her, you shook her and immediately after this she went floppy. Your extreme shaking led to extreme bleeding in her brain. "It was obvious such violent actions would carry at least risk of very serious injury. I am not persuaded anything in the report can explain your violence towards Lexi. "You were otherwise a loving mother although you lived a chaotic personal lifestyle. It is hard to imagine the pain Lexi must have suffered during both historical violence and the violent shaking that led to her death." After Wiliband was found guilty by a jury in April, Detective Inspector Adam Stacey of Gloucestershire Police, said Wilband would now face the consequence of her actions. He added: "Melissa Wilband inflicted such serious injuries that were sadly to prove fatal and tragically Lexi passed away six days later, despite the best efforts of all the medical staff who tried to save her. Further medical evidence showed that Lexi had suffered at least one other episode of shaking at some point before this one. "Wilband told lie after lie after lie - right from Lexi's conception, and all the way throughout the pregnancy. These lies continued and were made to medical professionals trying to save Lexi's life, to the police, and all the way through to her giving evidence in court. The jury saw those lies for what they were. "Lexi should be five years old now with her whole future ahead of her. She was shaken by someone who should have been protecting her. Someone who should have put her safety and wellbeing above everything else, her mother. "Wilband did not do those things and in fact did the exact opposite. She now faces the consequences of her actions."
