Sir Keir Starmer has urged hospital doctors not to go ahead with a “reckless” strike planned for next week, saying it was “unbelievable” that such a strike would happen during a flu outbreak.
The Prime Minister said the NHS was at its “most precarious moment” since the coronavirus pandemic as flu cases surged across the UK and a strike would put the health system and its patients at “grave risk”.
Doctors’ union the British Medical Association (BMA) is polling its members to see if they would like to call off the strike, with the results due to be released on Monday.
But if they vote against it, hospital doctors will start a five-day strike in two days’ time (Wednesday, December 17).
A BMA spokesman said the government could head off a strike by delivering a credible offer to address pay, conditions and trust issues.
The flu is coming early this winter, experts say, and it appears to be an especially nasty season as new mutated versions of the virus are spreading.
Many are now calling it the “super flu,” but it’s no more severe and harder to treat.
NHS England said an average of 2,660 people with flu were hospitalized in England every day last week, the highest level for this time of year and a 55% increase on the previous week.
Data shows flu cases are also rising in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Health officials say children and teenagers are particularly affected by the outbreak.
Writing in the Guardian, Sir Keir said the strike “should not happen” and said resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – should accept a deal to avoid industrial action.
Sir Keir said that in addition to the government’s new proposals, they had given the BMA the chance to reschedule the strike until after Christmas.
“Don’t get me wrong – I certainly want them to be cancelled… but in this case I want to make sure we leave no stone unturned to protect the NHS,” he said.
The BMA said it would ask its members whether the government’s proposals were sufficient to call off Wednesday’s strike.
If members agree, they will be given time to consider the proposal in more detail and a formal follow-up referendum will be held on ending the dispute once and for all.
The program aims to address some of the problems faced by doctors trying to find work and provide more training venues for new doctors to advance their careers.
On Friday, Health Secretary Wes Streeting made a similar intervention to Sir Keir’s, warning that the strike coupled with an increase in flu patients would be a “double whammy” for the NHS.
However, Chris Streather, medical director of London’s NHS, said the flu situation was “well within the scope of what the NHS can handle” and that hospitals were better prepared to deal with large-scale outbreaks since the pandemic.
