'Stop pretending I can solve all your issues now', Streeting tells doctors union as he urges it to negotiate amid walkouts
The Health Secretary said "we could be doing so much" for the NHS "more quickly if we were all rowing in the same direction"
Wes Streeting has told LBC the country’s biggest union for doctors must negotiate with the government amid a six day walkout which ends tomorrow.
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Speaking to Lewis Goodall on Sunday, the Health Secretary urged the British Medical Association (BMA) to come to the table as it continues to refuse to accept his deal on pay and jobs.
“We've delivered a 28.9 per cent pay rise for resident doctors. We finally got the NHS going in the right direction.
“Lowest waiting list in three years, fastest ambulance response times in half a decade. There are plenty of proof points now that under Labour, the NHS is improving, but we could be doing so much more quickly if we were all rowing in the same direction,” Mr Streeting told Lewis.
He added that the BMA just turned down a deal that would have given them a 4.9 per cent pay average pay rise, which is as high as 7.1 per cent for some of their lowest paid resident doctors.
In a direct plea to resident doctors, Mr Streeting added: “I'm not pretending to have solved all of the issues they're facing in less than two years of Labour government. I'd like the BMA to stop pretending that we could solve all of those problems in less than two years."
Read more: Streeting ‘not given up hope’ of deal with resident doctors as strike action enters weekend
“Look at the state of the public finances we inherited. Look at the state of our public services, frankly, look at the state of the world and recognise that the way in which this Labour government is going to turn this country around is day by day, week by week, month by month and year by year, delivering sustained improvement in the NHS and other public sectors.”
It comes after the resident doctors’ committee chairman Dr Jack Fletcher accused ministers of suddenly reducing the amount of money they were offering to secure the deal - which Mr Streeting said is “simply not true.”
Mr Streeting said he has taken an “unusual step” in writing to the resident doctors’ committee to spell out in detail what he was offering.
Patients have been told to continue to access planned appointments.
The strike action is set to end on Monday. Dr Steve Taylor , a GP of thirty years and the GP spokesperson for the Doctors Association, told LBC News that despite the pay rise offered by the government, resident doctors are still ten thousand pounds a year worse off than previous generations of doctors.
The health secretary said he hasn't "given up" on reaching a deal with resident doctors but stressed that the Government can't offer any more.