Wes Streeting has hit out at striking doctors’ “absurd” demands and accused them of rejecting the government’s deal “while still expecting its benefits to materialise”.
Writing exclusively for The Independent, the health secretary claimed the British Medical Association, which represents striking doctors in the ongoing dispute about pay, wasn’t serious about reaching a deal.
He accused resident doctors of being unable to “agree among themselves on an alternative” way forward, and said that when ministers asked the BMA to put propose a way to get a deal over the line they received instead “another rejection of the offer on the table”.
“The BMA seem to think they should get the benefits of the deal, at the same time as they take their members out on strike,” he said.
The NHS is braced for tens of thousands of resident doctors in England to stage a six-day walkout from 7am on Tuesday, immediately after the Easter long weekend, which will see thousands of appointments and surgeries cancelled.
The government has withdrawn an offer of 1,000 additional training places after talks designed to halt the strike collapsed, saying it no longer considered them “financially or operationally” possible because the NHS will have to deal with the £250m cost of the industrial action.
Writing about the latest breakdown in talks, the health secretary said there “comes a point in any dispute where the question is no longer what more can be offered, but whether the other side is serious about reaching an agreement at all”.
He added: “Putting to one side the absurdity of this position, there is a hard practical reality that cannot be wished away: some elements of this deal are time-sensitive and the deal itself becomes unaffordable to deliver if we’re covering the costs of strikes instead of putting money into doctors’ pockets and creating more training posts.”
“The idea that you can reject a deal while still expecting its benefits to materialise is simply not credible,” he writes.
He warned the BMA that he would now have “to prioritise negotiations with nurses and the wider NHS workforce”, as well as get the service through the walkout.
The six-day strike is likely to cost the NHS “well over £250 million”, he added, saying that while no-one should underestimate the pressure doctors are under, “nor can we ignore the consequences of repeated strikes on a health service already under immense strain”.
The NHS would try to reduce disruption “but we cannot eliminate it”, he warned, adding that it would result it cancelled appointments, delayed care and additional strain on other health service staff.
The strikes, which come after the prime minister gave doctors a 48-hour deadline and an ultimatum to reconsider industrial action or lose its offer of extra training places, have been described as not only “bad for doctors”, but “also bad for patients”.
It marks the 15th strike by resident doctors, formerly called junior doctors, since March 2023, and follows similar action in December, as doctors demand that their pay to be restored to the level it was in 2008 – an increase of 26 per cent.
They will walkout from 7am on Tuesday until 6.59am the following Monday, the union has said.
On Thursday, Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the British Medical Association’s resident doctors committee, said the withdrawal of the training places was “extremely disappointing”.
“It is genuinely disheartening to be at this point after what had been constructive talks up until a few ]weeks ago when the government moved the goalposts,” he said.
“It is simply wrong that the development of the doctors of the future is being used as a pawn like this.”
He said his organisation would happily meet Mr Streeting over the Easter weekend in a bid to avoid the walkouts, but only if there is “an improvement” to the deal put to medics.
When challenged on why the BMA had not put the government’s offer to its members, Dr Fletcher said it did not meet the threshold to be considered, and the organisation could not keep “repeatedly” putting proposals to members.
The Department of Health and Social Care has said its offer would improve career progression and working lives and mean resident doctors are on average 35.2 per cent better off than they were four years ago.
Resident doctors are qualified doctors in their first years of training. Their pay has risen almost 30 per cent over the past few years, including by 22.3 per cent since Labour came into power in the summer of 2024.
The BMA has been approached for comment..