Streeting: Government will not be ‘held to ransom’ by striking doctors

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he was battling “cultural challenges” to modernise the NHS as he warned striking doctors they were putting jobs at risk.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has announced resident doctors in England will strike on five consecutive days from 7am on November 14 to 7am on November 19.

Mr Streeting suggested the £250 million cost of dealing with strike action would limit the number of specialty training roles available to doctors to further their careers.

He said he would not be “held to ransom” by striking doctors.

The Health Secretary insisted there were “green shoots” of recovery in the NHS since Labour took office and warned the financial cost of strike action and the impact on increased waiting lists could hit that progress.

Mr Streeting told Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “There are green shoots of recovery in terms of waiting lists falling and the number of GPs we’re recruiting and patient satisfaction with general practice has gone up, for example.

“But all the time as Health and Social Care Secretary, I am battling cultural challenges in the NHS too, whether that’s people abdicating responsibility, not listening to patients, covering things up when things go wrong, and all of those things undermine public trust and confidence, not just in the NHS, but in the ability of government.”

The latest figures show an estimated 7.41 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of August, relating to 6.26 million patients, up slightly from 7.40 million treatments and 6.25 million patients at the end of July.

Mr Streeting told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “Progress has stalled in the last few months for a couple of reasons. Firstly we had industrial action by resident doctors, that had an impact and set us back, as I feared it would and said it would at the time.

“We’ve also seen demand outstripping growth in activity; I say that not by way of excuse by the way but explanation, we’ve got to make sure that we outstrip demand. I think you’ll begin to see improvement again on waiting lists in the coming months.”

In a message to the BMA, he said: “There is a deal available to be done that would deliver for resident doctors, right now, as many of them are applying for speciality training places and are deeply concerned that there aren’t enough places available.

“We can, right now, increase the number of places available as well as helping with things like exam fees and other things that resident doctors experience.

“But I can’t do that if I’m spending a quarter-of-a-billion pounds meeting the costs of strikes. So, there are choices and trade-offs here, there are always choices and trade-offs across the NHS.”

He added: “What we will not do, however, is be held to ransom; and what I will not do is allow those costs of strikes to be inflicted on other NHS staff who are working constructively with us, or on patients in terms of the services that they receive.”