Wes Streeting hits out at resident doctors' 'unrealistic' demands as six-day walkout begins

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Tens of thousands of resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, walked out from 7am on April 7, in a row with the Government over jobs and pay issues.

Mr Streeting has condemned the action, saying the British Medical Association's (BMA) demands are "not remotely reasonable or realistic".

He told LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast: "It is just extraordinary that they have chosen instead to take their members out on strike to inflict damage on the NHS in this way and [cause] disruption to patients."

Read more: Disruption expected as six-day doctors' strike begins

Read more: NHS urges patients to come forward as normal amid ‘difficult’ six-day strike

Mr Streeting said that the current deal offered to resident doctors would have given them an average 4.9% pay rise for the coming year, plus additional training places, a thousand of which would have opened for applications this month.

The deal also included the cancellation of the mandatory exam fees they face, which can amount to thousands a year, he said.

Mr Streeting said they're "doing everything we can to keep the show on the road" and noted they are maintaining 95% of planned care.

He added: "But to the 5% that are not going ahead this week, I'm only too sorry, because I know that many of those people would have been waiting, often waiting longer than I would have wanted them to wait already.

"And this has real consequences for them, both in terms of the anxiety of waiting for something to happen and in some cases, the pain of waiting for something to happen.

"And the BMA have got a lot to answer for, I'm afraid."

NHS England said that it will keep as much pre-planned care running as possible, and patients are urged to attend appointments unless they have been contacted. Urgent and emergency care will run as usual.

The Health Secretary recognised the "NHS still has massive problems", but slammed the strikes as interrupting the progress they are making to fix it.

He said: "The NHS is finally moving in the right direction. It is on the road to recovery.

"We're seeing that with falling waiting lists, we're seeing it with faster ambulance response times and many other indicators."

He accused the BMA of "slamming the brakes on the progress we're making" in the NHS, calling the strikes "an enormous waste of time, money and potential".

Mr Streeting added: "As the Health Secretary, all I ask of the BMA is to accept that I can't solve all of the problems in less than two years. It is going to take time. It does cost money that is in short supply.

"So there needs to be some give and take, and we need to do this together.

"The government's done a lot of giving, the BMA's done a lot of taking. I've not seen much compromise from them in the middle."

Dr Jack Fletcher, chairman of the BMA’s resident doctors committee, said the Government “quietly watered down” the deal on offer to resident doctors.

He added: “Resident doctors are as keen as he is to bring an end to the strikes, but his Government needs to put an offer on the table that we can accept and which doesn’t change at the last minute.”

The latest strike is the 15th walkout by resident doctors in England since 2023.

Elsewhere, hundreds of BMA staff are also on strike in an ongoing row over pay. The 48-hour walkout started on Monday.

And last week it emerged that senior medics will also be balloted on industrial action after ministers announced a 3.5% pay award.

Simultaneous ballots of consultants and specialist, associate specialist and specialty (SAS) doctors will run from May 11 until July 6.