Wes Streeting is set to hold last-ditch talks with doctors’ union leaders in an effort to avoid five days of “highly dangerous” NHS walkouts later this month.
Junior doctors in England are set to strike from 7am on 25 July as part of a pay dispute with the government.
Professor Robert Winston, a Labour peer who became a household name through his documentaries on child development, has warned that the “highly dangerous” industrial action risks harming the public’s trust in the profession.
But the new leader of the British Medical Association (BMA) has said that the doctors’ 29 per cent pay demand is “non-negotiable” and warned strikes could go on for years.
Although discussions are set to take place this week, the BBC reported that the BMA would only halt the strikes if it receives an offer it can put to its members.
Mr Streeting has previously told the union that, after junior doctors received a 28.9 per cent pay rise last year when Labour entered government, the public would not understand why “you would still walk out on strike, and neither do I”.
A new poll also suggests public support for such a strike has collapsed.
While last summer’s doctor strikes saw public support of 52 per cent, the industrial action planned for later this month is only supported by one in four (26 per cent) members of the public, the survey by Ipsos found.
Mr Streeting told the Commons on Thursday: “We have put the NHS on the road to recovery, but we all know that the NHS is still hanging by a thread, and that the BMA is threatening to pull it.”
Prof Winston resigned from the BMA following the strike announcement and urged the union to reconsider, saying it is “important that doctors consider their own responsibility much more seriously”, and stressed that the walkout could cause “long-term damage” to people’s faith in doctors.
Alan Johnson, who was health secretary for two years under Tony Blair and who used to lead a union, told The Independent: “This has all the signs of the BMA leading their troops into a battle they can’t win, nor should they, given that government has honoured the pay review recommendations in full having settled last year’s dispute immediately on taking office.
“I doubt if there’s anybody with any trade union experience who thinks the BMA have chosen the right terrain on which to go to war with the government. This is a battle Wes Streeting has to win,” he added.
Former Tory health minister Steve Brine also warned the strikes had the potential to “undo the good” that had been done on cutting NHS waiting lists.
Some 90 per cent of voting resident doctors backed the strike action, while the BMA said the turnout was 55 per cent.
BMA resident doctors committee co-chairs Dr Ross Nieuwoudt and Dr Melissa Ryan said: “We have been clear throughout the dispute that we are happy to continue discussions to find a solution that our members will find acceptable and that can prevent any strike action having to take place.
"We are glad that the secretary of state has taken us up on our offer, and we look forward to constructive discussions, in the hope that we can make progress that would be sufficient to support suspending the planned strike.”
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