Maribel Haslett
Resident doctors will be risking lives and ‘abandoning patients in their hour of greatest need’ when they strike tomorrow, experts warned last night.
A five-day walkout will start at 7am, despite the UK struggling with one of the worst flu seasons in NHS history.
The Health Secretary accused medics of timing their walkout at the moment of ‘maximum danger’ after they voted overwhelmingly to reject his last-ditch offer.
British Medical Association members voted 83 per cent to 17 per cent to proceed with industrial action, which health leaders say will cause ‘inevitable harm’ in the run-up to Christmas.
It comes as the NHS is being bombarded by a record super-flu outbreak, with the hardest hit hospitals declaring ‘critical incidents’ and forcing ambulances to divert to other A&Es.
Wes Streeting yesterday appealed to resident doctors to defy their union bosses and turn up to work, stressing there is a ‘different magnitude of risk in striking at this moment’.
He added: ‘These strikes are self-indulgent, irresponsible and dangerous.
‘Abandoning your patients in their hour of greatest need goes against everything a career in medicine is meant to be about.’
The BMA accused Mr Streeting of ‘fumbling’ his opportunity to end the dispute, as medics aim for a 26 per cent pay rise despite their salaries already ballooning by 28.9 per cent over the past three years.
The Government put forward a revised offer to the BMA last Wednesday, offering emergency legislation to prioritise UK medical graduates for specialty training roles and increasing speciality training posts over the next three years from the 1,000 announced in the Ten-Year Health Plan to 4,000.
It also offered to bring forward 1,000 of those posts to start in 2026, and ministers would have funded mandatory Royal College examination and membership fees for resident doctors – but there was no extra money for a further pay rise.
Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said: ‘This vote is a bitter pill which will inevitably result in harm to patients and damage to the NHS.’
Rory Deighton, NHS Confederation acute and community care director, described the decision to proceed with the ‘hugely disruptive’ strikes as ‘bitterly disappointing’, saying: ‘These strikes come at the worst possible time, with rapidly rising flu levels putting huge strain on hospitals.
‘Despite NHS leaders working incredibly hard to prepare for these strikes, we are concerned that if resident doctors walk out during a record flu surge it could put patient safety at risk.
‘We would urge the BMA to recognise these strikes are disproportionate given the generous pay rises resident doctors have already had, call them off and moderate their demands so a solution to this long-running dispute can be found.’
Responding to the outcome of the vote, Mr Streeting said yesterday: ‘It is now clear what these strikes are really about. The BMA fantasy demand for another 26 per cent pay rise on top of the 28.9 per cent they have already received.’
He said the union’s failure to accept his offer to extend its strike mandate so they could postpone their walkout until January showed a ‘shocking disregard for patient safety’.
Dr Jack Fletcher, chairman of the BMA’s resident doctors committee, said: ‘Our members have considered the Government’s offer, and their resounding response should leave the Health Secretary in no doubt about how badly he has just fumbled his opportunity to end industrial action.
‘Tens of thousands of frontline doctors have come together to say ‘no’ to what is clearly too little, too late.’
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