Wes Streeting tonight took aim at the leaders of Friday’s striking doctors whose five-day walkout is set to inflict ‘untold misery’ on patients.
The Health Secretary accused union officials of acting in bad faith during talks or being ‘too weak’ to get a grip of their members.
On the eve of the strikes, he told the Mail he would not cave in to their ‘unreasonable’ demands, adding: ‘I’m not going to let the BMA hold this country to ransom.’
Mr Streeting said union leaders had given the impression they were happy with how negotiations had progressed and he had believed they would pause industrial action for more talks. But he was shocked when the BMA’s resident doctors committee pulled the plug on further discussions on Tuesday and announced it would plough on with the strike.
The Secretary of State described it as ‘unprecedented’ for a union to lead its members to the picket line after receiving inflation-busting pay rises totalling 28.9 per cent over three years.
He said that the officials ‘who sat in front of me… either couldn’t carry their committee with them, in which case they’re weak, or have no intention of carrying their committee with them, in which case they’re misleading’. He said their behaviour risks bringing the wider trade union movement into ‘disrepute’.
Mr Streeting said the BMA owes an ‘apology’ to patients who are left in pain and agony for longer as a result of appointments being cancelled and said they seem to have ‘lost sight’ of their responsibility to ‘Do No Harm’.
Up to 50,000 resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – are due to strike from 7am on Friday in pursuit of a further 29 per cent pay rise.
Wes Streeting accused union officials of acting in bad faith during talks or being ‘too weak’ to get a grip of their members
Up to 50,000 resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – are due to strike from 7am on Friday
Mr Streeting had refused to budge on pay but offered a number of other financial concessions relating to the cost of exams, equipment and training.
On Thursday, he accused doctors of ‘squandering a huge amount of goodwill’ that he had coming into government and revealed the cost of dealing with the impact of the strike – estimated to be ‘hundreds of millions of pounds’ – means he will no longer be able to fund the changes he had offered to bring the dispute to an end.
He called on doctors who disagree with the militancy of the BMA to ‘do the right thing and turn up for work’.
Talking at the Department of Health and Social Care, Mr Streeting said: ‘I’m not going to let the BMA hold this country to ransom.
‘They have seriously underestimated me. They’ve underestimated this Prime Minister. And they’ve underestimated this government. We’re not going to cave into this kind of militancy. That would be, I think, an extremely dangerous precedent to set.’
He said the BMA had adopted ‘hardline tactics’ that ‘punish patients for no good reason’ and stressed: ‘We’ll do everything we can to mitigate against the impact of these strikes. What I can’t do is promise Mail readers that there isn’t going to be a serious impact.
‘There will be lots of people who waited a long time, who were looking forward to their appointments and their treatments this weekend, who will have been notified that their procedure can’t go ahead.
‘Having been through kidney cancer myself, I know what it’s like when you’re waiting for your tests, your scans, your appointments, the anxiety that comes with that.’
Junior doctors protesting outside Downing Street, London (File image)
Mr Streeting said the BMA owes an ‘apology’ to patients who are left in pain and agony for longer as a result of appointments being cancelled
The MP for Ilford North continued: ‘The thing that BMA seem to have lost sight of are the three words that more than anything else sums up the responsibility of medics, which is to Do No Harm.
‘What I can’t do, sat here the day before the strikes begin, is honestly say, hand on heart, that I can guarantee that no patients will come to harm. We are doing everything we can with the NHS leadership and operational leaders to avoid that scenario.’
Turning his attention to the union leaders who he had been negotiating with, he said: ‘They gave me the impression that the reason that they were in the room was to negotiate and agree a letter that could go to their committee that would see the postponement of strike action.
‘And then I get a result back from the committee, which was a unanimous rejection, which means that the four elected representatives who sat in front of me appearing to engage in good faith either couldn’t carry their committee with them, in which case they’re weak, or have no intention of carrying their committee with them, in which case they’re misleading.
‘Either way, you cannot negotiate with union leaders who are either weak or misleading, or a combination of the two.’ He said the committee should reflect on the views of their wider membership, where support for action is weakening.
He said: ‘When you’ve got a government that has … shown a real willingness to work with you, why on earth would you lead your members out on strike, knowing full well that the cost of that strike is untold misery inflicted on patients and a heavy price that will inevitably come at a cost of a whole range of things that resident doctors want to see improving the NHS.’
Hospitals are trying to minimise the number of cancellations after acknowledging the harm this caused during previous industrial action. Instead, staff will be spread more thinly to keep as many services running as possible.
Mr Streeting has cancelled plans to attend a friend’s wedding abroad this weekend so he can spend time at the NHS Operational Command Centre and in hospitals to monitor the impact of strikes.
He thanked NHS staff who have also cancelled leave to cover for striking doctors but urged consultants not to get greedy with their overtime rates after the BMA said they should charge £6,000 to provide on-call cover over the weekend.
