These latest doctors strikes are a slap in the face for patients – call them off now

After resident doctors received the highest pay award in the entire public sector, their latest walkout will not seem justifiable to patients up and down this country – or their colleagues, says Wes Streeting

Just last week, I met the BMA resident doctors committee’s new leadership to try and find genuine solutions to the issues I know make their working lives more difficult than they should be, at the start of what I hope are many years of service to the NHS. Our talks were respectful, constructive and hopeful.

We discussed a range of measures that could have made a real difference to their members, including measures to address the costs associated uniquely with being a doctor, making the cash in doctors’ pockets go further, more specialty training places and a range of improvements to their working conditions.

‘They received the highest pay award in the entire public sector this year – and last year. It may not be everything they want immediately, but that is not a bad start’ (PA)

Their rush to industrial action, which was announced today and will take place in November, flies in the face of the wishes of their patients, who have consistently opposed these disruptive walkouts.

The strikes are also without the backing of resident doctors themselves, the majority of whom did not vote for this. Unlike the BMA leadership, most of these committed clinicians just want to get on with their jobs.

They know strikes should be a last resort and can see that this is a government that is backing them. Under the Tories, resident doctors saw their pay slashed and ministers refused to meet them. The opposite is true today.

They received the highest pay award in the entire public sector this year – and last year. Their pay has increased by an average of 28.9 per cent compared to three years ago. In their first year out of medical school, new resident doctors, when their additional earnings are included, earn an average of £49,000 a year, rising to £97,000 for the most experienced resident doctors.

It may not be everything they want immediately, but that is not a bad start.

This walkout will just not seem justifiable to patients up and down this country, including their colleagues in the NHS, who earn far less and have not seen the same level of pay hikes in recent years.

I have not just listened to resident doctors’ concerns about the state of training and employment for resident doctors, I agree with them. It is grossly unfair that doctors can’t book leave for major life events, that they get sent across the country on rotations with barely any notice, or that the promise of progression through the ranks is being blocked by bottlenecks.

Over the past two months, my team and I have been meeting with the BMA to agree on the makings of a deal that would improve resident doctors working lives and end this dispute.

By walking out on strike, the BMA is walking away from more specialty jobs and better career progression. The BMA is blocking a better deal for resident doctors. It is a slap in the face for the rest of the NHS workforce who will be left picking up the pieces, and most of all their patients who will see treatment cancelled.

There is not a more pro-NHS, pro-doctor government waiting in the wings. If the BMA tries to wreck the NHS’s recovery, the only person who benefits is Nigel Farage.

The NHS has tried and tested ways to mitigate the impact of doctors’ strikes. Working with NHS leaders, I will once again turn my attention to doing everything possible to minimise disruption to patient care.

It’s not too late. The BMA leadership should call off these needless strikes and return to meaningful dialogue. Instead of fighting the battles of the past, let’s together build an NHS fit for the future.