Health minister threatens to withdraw offered perks for resident doctors as he begs 'don't strike over Christmas’

Resident doctors have just finished another five-day strike in a row over pay and conditions, but the Health secretary’s said he can’t offer them another pay rise.

Mr Kinnock hit out at junior doctors, but said that hard-working NHS staff were keeping the health service on track ahead of a difficult winter.

And he begged them not to have another “reckless” strike again before Christmas - as their mandate for action is due to run out in January.

Mr Kinnock said on a visit to a GP practise in North London this week that the “early indications are that it’s looking good” in terms of the impact of the strike to NHS waiting lists.

Every time doctors walk out, it costs the NHS around £250million, he said.

He also hit out at the GP wing of the BMA, saying: “We see them as a rump of refuseniks who are not prepared to go ahead with online access and online consultation.

"Even though we live in a world where people do their banking online, do their travel booking online, book their groceries online.

"So it's clearly time to come into the 21st century.”

He urged them to step back from the brink and recognise they have already had a pay rise that many others have not.

And he hinted that extra non-pay help offered to them may be taken off the table in future, thanks to the spiralling costs of the strikes to the health service.

He said: "We've also offered further support on things like exam fees and ensuring that people trained in the UK are prioritised for job opportunities. All of that is on the table.

"Outrageously, the Resident Doctors Committee of the BMA didn't include any of that in the way in which they consulted their members.

"They just made it a sort of binary choice without those nuances in there. I don't think that that's acceptable.

"I think that they should go back with the full package that what we're offering, what we're prepared to talk about.

"But of course, every time they go on strike, the massive financial impact of that makes it less likely that we're able to offer some of those additional things that we did have on the table.

"I would just urge them to stop and think about what they're doing."

After the strike by resident doctors in England came to an end earlier this week, Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee (RDC) said: “With the strike over, we now have a window of opportunity for talks. It is vital that the Health Secretary does not waste it.

“Further strikes are in no one’s interest. And a deal can be reached if the Government recognises the need to move on jobs and pay.

“Firstly, on jobs, we need measures that go further and faster to address the current absurd situation where insufficient training posts have led to doctors trained in the UK facing unemployment - all while patients are desperate to get off the waiting list and get the care they need.

"There are straightforward steps they can take to ensure job security for doctors but so far we simply have not seen them brought to the table.  

“Secondly, on pay, all we ask for is the equivalent of a pound an hour extra, in today’s money, each year for a first-year resident doctor. If this were locked in for the next few years it would put an end to this dispute.

"Done over a responsible timeframe, fair pay for doctors remains one of the best tools the Government can use to stem the tide of more and more doctors leaving the NHS. We just need to see a plan to get there."