Wes Streeting has hit out at the ‘preposterous’ British Medical Association for telling its resident doctors to strike for another five days.
The health secretary accused the union of ‘reckless posturing’ as he warned the walkout will ‘harm patients’ and hamper efforts to tackle waiting lists.
Resident doctors – previously known as junior doctors – will strike on five consecutive days from 7am on November 14 to 7am on November 19.
They make up around half of all medics in the NHS and have already received pay rises worth 28.9 per cent over the past three years.
Health leaders warned the strike will cause significant disruption heading into winter, at a time when staff sickness and seasonal typically rocket, placing additional pressure on services.
Recent pay rises mean a doctor can now expect to earn £49,000, including overtime and premium rates for unsocial hours, in their first year out of medical school.
This is more than the average full-time worker earns in the UK.
More experienced resident doctors can earn around £97,000 a year, with this figure soaring even further once they qualify as a consultant.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting (pictured) has hit out at the British Medical Association for telling its resident doctors to strike for another five days
The industrial action, which is linked to pay and employment opportunities, has been called despite having the backing of only a third of the 77,000 resident doctors working in the NHS.
A ballot closing in July this year recorded a turnout of just 55.3 per cent, down from 77.5 per cent in February 2023.
The Department of Health and Social Care said it is working to create 1,000 additional training places and is taking steps to prioritise UK medical graduates for speciality posts.
Mr Streeting said: ‘It is preposterous that the BMA have rushed headlong into more damaging strike action a week after its new leadership opened discussions with the government.
‘By walking out on strike, the BMA are walking away from an offer to improve resident doctors’ working conditions and create more specialty training roles to progress their careers.
‘The BMA are blocking a better deal for doctors.
‘These unreasonable and unnecessary strikes do not have the public’s support, nor did a majority of resident doctors vote for them.
‘The BMA’s reckless posturing will harm patients, leave other doctors and NHS staff to pick up the pieces and divert resources away from rebuilding the NHS.’
Resident doctors – previously known as junior doctors – will strike on five consecutive days from 7am on November 14 to 7am on November 19. Pictured: File photo of resident doctors striking at a BMA picket outside University College Hospital in London in December 2023
Alf Collins, a trustee of the Patients Association, said the dispute will again leave patients waiting ‘in pain and uncertainty’.
He said: ‘For many patients and their carers, the threat alone of yet more industrial action will be devastating news and cause regrettable anxiety.
‘And rightly so, as this wouldn’t just be five days of disruption beginning on the 14th November, but would lead to weeks and potentially months of delays for patients as appointments and treatments are pushed back.’
Dr Jack Fletcher, chairman of the BMA’s resident doctors committee, said: ‘This is not where we wanted to be.
‘We have spent the last week in talks with Government, pressing the Health Secretary to end the scandal of doctors going unemployed.
‘We know from our own survey half of second year doctors in England are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment, and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.
‘The Health Secretary’s 11th hour letter to us today makes vague promises for some degree of change to jobs and training for two years hence, showing little understanding of the crisis here and now, or a real commitment to fix it.
‘While we want to get a deal done, the Government seemingly does not, leaving us with little option but to call for strike action.’
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.
Rory Deighton, acute director at the NHS Confederation, which represents healthcare organisations, said: ‘NHS leaders will be bitterly disappointed that negotiations have again broken down, and they will now have to prepare to mitigate the disruption of more strikes at the same time as they are getting ready for what is likely to be another very difficult winter, whilst continuing to bear down on their elective waiting lists.
‘The NHS has already experienced a busy summer and further walk outs will make it even more difficult to manage the anticipated spike in seasonal viruses and staff sickness.’