Wes Streeting strongarms striking resident doctors with a deadline to accept government offer - or risk losing it all
Wes Streeting is strongarming resident doctors over planned strikes with a deadline to accept the government's latest offer on pay - or risk losing it all.
The Health Secretary said any future offer to the medics 'will not look better than what is on offer today' and gave them until next Thursday to reconsider.
Resident doctors in England, formerly known as junior doctors, are set to down their stethoscopes for six days at 7am on April 7, immediately after the long Easter weekend.
Demanding a 26 per cent pay rise, the doctors will be striking for the 15th time in three years.
Members of union the British Medical Association (BMA) previously urged the government to 'act fast' to prevent the walkout.
Representatives pointed to the war in Iran and the likelihood of further inflation as a further reason why a greater pay uplift is necessary.
But Streeting told MPs today that the government was 'planning on the basis of a prolonged conflict' in Iran, and as a result will not be able to offer more to resident doctors in a future deal.
He also accused the BMA's resident doctors committee of unilaterally rejecting the deal instead of putting it to members.
The Health Secretary Wes Streeting (pictured today) said any future offer to the medics 'will not look better than what is on offer today' and gave them until next Thursday to reconsider ahead of planned strike action next month
The Health Secretary said the deal would have led to resident doctors getting an average pay rise of 4.9 per cent this year.
Streeting added: 'Along with decisions on pay I've already taken, this package would have meant that this year alone resident doctors would have been on average 35.2 per cent better off than four years ago.'
On Wednesday, Dr Jack Fletcher, chairman of the Resident Doctors Committee of the BMA, said: 'We cannot ignore that, thanks to global events, economic indicators now point to years of greatly increased inflation.
'We are simply not going to put an offer to doctors that risks locking in further erosion of pay at a time when doctors continue to leave the UK for other countries.'
Addressing MPs on Thursday, Streeting said: 'The BMA has pointed to the war in Iran as reason to reject the deal.
'So let me spell out the consequences of what this country is facing.
'The Government wants to see de-escalation, a swift resolution to the conflict, with a negotiated agreement that puts tough conditions on Iran and specifically its nuclear ambitions.
'However, we are planning on the basis of a prolonged conflict, because that is the prudent thing to do.
Resident Doctors on the picket line at St Thomas' Hospital Westminster on November 14 last year
'In that eventuality, there will be an impact on the economy and on the public finances.
'Were that to happen, a future offer to resident doctors will not look better than what is on offer today.'
Mr Streeting asked the BMA to reconsider the strike action and offered to meet the whole resident doctor committee who 'thus far refused to meet me'.
He added: 'As we ask the BMA to reconsider, they have until next Thursday to do so before we have to call time on the extra jobs and the focus of the NHS, and my department turns to minimising the disruption from this unnecessary and unwarranted strike action, which would also consume the money set aside for this deal.'
In February, BMA members voted overwhelmingly to extend industrial action for a further six months.
More than half of eligible members took part in the ballot, with 53 per cent voting, and 93 per cent backing the decision to continue strike action.
Speaking at a board meeting of NHS England earlier on Thursday, health service chief executive Sir Jim Mackey said: 'We felt very, very, very close that we had a deal that could work for all parties. It's incredibly disappointing that it fell to bits at the last minute.
'We are going to have to get ourselves organised about navigating what's probably a long period now of dispute.
'The NHS has managed it well in the last year, we'll have to settle ourselves into a bit of a rhythm where we're managing business as usual as best we can.'
The strike action, the 15th by resident doctors since 2023, will be the joint-longest walkout in the dispute.
Responding to Streeting's comments today, Dr Fletcher said: 'Mr Streeting is correct to say that recent talks have been much more positive and constructive in tone.
'That's why it is so disappointing he should now immediately move to misleading language like this.
'We are happy to accept that pay has risen in real terms in the last four years, but to say it has gone up 35% is wildly overstating the case, conveniently ignoring some of the worst inflation in recent history during that period.
'Resident doctors are still a fifth down in real-terms pay compared to 2008.
'Nor do I recognise the Health Secretary's characterisation of us as being 'optimistic' this offer would satisfy our members.
'We repeatedly warned that by diluting the original investment over three years and coming in with a sub-par DDRB award the Government was heading towards a rejection by the full committee, which indeed happened.
'In making these last-minute changes, Government has risked snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
'There is still hope though, and we can get round the table right now if these last-minute changes are reversed.'
