Tens of thousands of doctors will go on strike as planned in the lead-up to Christmas after their union rejected an offer to call off the action.
The British Medical Association (BMA) today said an overwhelming majority of its resident doctor members voted to press ahead with the five-day walk out between December 17 and 22.
The poll was announced last week after the government offered a new deal.
No promises on pay were made but it included quadrupling the amount of speciality training posts in NHS hospitals and covering trainee expenses such as exam fees.
The union insists pay should go up, pointing out that that resident doctors (previously known as junior doctors) are paid 20% less than they were in 2008 – before cuts were made in response to the financial crisis – once inflation is accounted for.
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Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who has branded the strike ‘irresponsible and dangerous’ given winter-time pressures on the NHS, refused to negotiate on pay, poointing out resident doctors have had their wages upped by nearly 30% in the past three years.
NHS leaders have warned the health service is being swept by a ‘tidal wave of flu’ linked to the H3N2 ‘super’ virus.
New data shows an average of 2,660 people were hospitalised by the disease every day last week.
Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, said the ‘very nasty virus’ has arrived ‘much earlier in the winter season than normal’ and is ‘uncharted territory’ for medics.
The nursing union has warned hospitals could soon be ‘overwhelmed’ even though the peak is ‘not even here yet’.
The BMA said 65% of its resident doctor members took part in the poll and that 83% of those voted in favour of the action.
Keir Starmer told MPs the BMA has ‘lost the sympathy of the public and lost the sympathy of their non-doctor colleagues’.
He appealed to ‘doctors themselves to push back against the BMA’.
Why are doctors going on strike?
The stalemate over pay is driving the action by resident doctors, which refers to fully qualified doctors who are training in a specialism.
The BMA’s committee chair for resident doctors, Jack Fletcher, 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.’
Dr Fletcher claimed the government’s new jobs offer was only ‘on paper’ as it would create them by ‘cannibalising’ existing jobs, though he did not specify which roles he was referring to.
He continued: ‘This week’s strike is still entirely avoidable – the health secretary should now work with us in the short time we have left to come up with a credible offer to end this jobs crisis and avert the real-terms pay cuts he is pushing in 2026. We’re willing to work to find a solution if he is.
‘We remain committed to ensuring patient safety, as we have done with all previous rounds of strike action, and urge hospital trusts to continue planning to ensure safe staffing. We will be in close contact with NHS England throughout the strikes to address safety concerns if they arise.’
Mr Streeting, calling the BMA’s pay demands a ‘fantasy’, accused the union of using ‘Christmas strikes to inflict damage on the NHS at the moment of maximum danger’.
‘These strikes are self-indulgent, irresponsible and dangerous,’ he said.
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