EPASir Keir Starmer has urged resident doctors not to go ahead with “reckless” strikes planned for next week, saying it is “beyond belief” they could take place during a flu epidemic.
The Prime Minister said the NHS was in its “most precarious moment” since the coronavirus pandemic due to soaring flu cases across the UK, and that strikes would put the health system and its patients in “grave danger”.
The doctors’ union, the British Medical Association (BMA), is polling its members to see if they are prepared to call off the walkout, and the results will be published on Monday.
But if they vote against, a five-day strike by resident doctors will begin two days later, on Wednesday December 17.
A BMA spokesperson said the government could end the strike by tackling pay, conditions and confidence with a credible offer.
The flu arrived early this winter and the season promises to be particularly bad due to a new mutated version of the virus circulating, experts say.
Many now call it the “super flu,” but it is neither more serious nor more difficult to treat.
An average of 2,660 patients per day were in hospital with flu in England last week – the highest number ever recorded for this time of year and up 55% on the previous week, NHS England said.
Flu cases are also increasing in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, figures show.
Children and young people are particularly affected by the outbreak, health officials said.
Writing in the Guardian, Sir Keir said strikes “should not happen” and that resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, should agree to a deal to avoid industrial action.
Sir Keir said that as well as the Government’s new offer, it had also given the BMA the option to postpone strikes until after Christmas.
“Don’t get me wrong, of course I would prefer them to be cancelled… But in the circumstances I wanted to be sure that we left no stone unturned in our efforts to protect the NHS,” he said.
The BMA said it would ask its members whether the government’s offer would be enough to call off Wednesday’s strikes.
If members answer yes, they will then have time to consider the offer in more detail and a follow-up formal referendum will be held to end the dispute completely.
The offer aims to resolve the problems faced by some doctors trying to find work and to provide more training places for newly qualified doctors to progress their careers.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting made a similar intervention to Sir Keir’s on Friday, saying warning strikes coupled with rising numbers of flu patients would be a “double whammy” for the NHS.
However, London NHS medical director Chris Streather said the flu situation was “well within the limits” of what the NHS could cope with and that hospitals were better prepared for large outbreaks since the Covid pandemic.
