Wes Streeting still doesn't understand why resident doctors are on strike

This year, we had 30,000 doctors applying for 10,000 jobs. That means around 20,000 fully qualified doctors are being turned away from jobs that would allow them to become consultants and GPs.

This is absurd when patients are struggling to get an appointment with their GP or being treated in hospital corridors after waiting hours on end to be seen.

At the same time, resident doctor pay is still a fifth lower in real terms than in 2008.

We’ve been clear with everyone, including the Health Secretary, that both of these issues need resolving to end our dispute.

Yet when it came to talks, the Health Secretary's proposed jobs plan fell far short of what was needed, and he continued to refuse to discuss pay.

And now, far from following through on his comments that pay restoration would be a “journey”, his Government is, in fact, suggesting a real-terms pay cut next year.

So when he asked on Nick Ferrari's show this morning why we didn’t put this “offer” – in so much as it was – to our members, the answer is that it would have been an insult.

Our members have charged us with fixing jobs and pay, and we have a mandate to take action on both. Why would we go back with something that did neither?

As for this ‘survey’, it was of around 200 resident doctors – out of 77,000 working in England.

It in no way reflects the profession as a whole. Support for industrial action has already been decisively demonstrated through 30,000 resident doctors voting to take industrial action and through discussions in doctors’ offices, WhatsApp groups, and online.

This weak attempt at polling does not reflect the reality of how frustrated and demoralised doctors are about the jobs and training crisis.

Resident doctors do not take the decision to strike lightly. They do so because, without addressing the erosion of pay and the employment crisis they are currently facing, the NHS will continue to lose doctors faster than it can train them - putting patient safety and the future of the health service at risk.

____________________

Dr Jack Fletcher is the BMA resident doctors committee chairman.

LBC Opinion provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest.

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official LBC position.

To contact us email opinion@lbc.co.uk