Wes Streeting: striking doctors' pay request for all healthcare workers would cost £30bn
Wes Streeting has criticised striking resident doctors, saying if “everyone was demanding the same” then the cost could hit £30bn a year and “we would be breaking this country”.
The Health Secretary said meeting the demands of resident doctors and the British Medical Association (BMA) would cost £3bn a year but could rise to £30bn a year if other health staff like nurses and consultants were offered the same pay rises.
It comes as doctors in England returned to work in their long-running row with the Government over jobs and pay.
The six-day strike was the 15th round of industrial action by resident doctors since 2023.
The BMA has accused the Government of going back on an offer made last month to resolve the long-running dispute and is demanding pay is restored to 2008 levels under retail price index (RPI) measures of inflation.
Speaking to reporters, including The Yorkshire Post at an Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) event yesterday, Mr Streeting said there was agreement between the Government and doctors about many of the issues in the NHS “but there isn’t an acknowledgement from the BMA” that the £300m lost to six days of strike action is money that could have been spent elsewhere.
He added: “We are seeing an improving NHS, and we’ve seen improvement despite resident doctors’ strikes, but the fact is, performance would have been better and there would have been more money to invest in staff and services if the BMA hadn’t been undertaking the strike action.
“So there needs to be a bit of compromise and bit of give and take here.”
Mr Streeting there was no doubt pay had been eroded by the Conservatives, but he said resident doctors are not the only people who work in the NHS.
“I’ve got a responsibility to all one and a half million people who work in the NHS, and the same number all over again who work in social care, many of whom are never paid as much as the lowest-paid doctor,” he said.
“And while the NHS will always be Labour’s number one priority as a public service, it is not the only public service in this country.”
This comes as Mr Streeting announced additional investment in community diagnostic centres (CDCs) across Yorkshire.
Some £20m is being put into the Seacroft CDC in north-east Leeds, which includes two new MRI scanners, a Dexa scanner, four new clinic rooms and an expansion of phlebotomy, cardiorespiratory, urodynamics testing.
The Hull CDC is set to have £3.5m put in to add an MRI scanner and audiology services.
Mr Streeting told The Yorkshire Post: “One of the shifts we want to see is for the NHS to become a neighbourhood health service as much as a National Health Service, and that means taking services out of hospitals and putting them closer to where people live.
“I’m delighted that the Seacroft CDC is just the latest example of that shift taking place.
“For a wide range of conditions on everything from bone strength to bladders, this is backed by £20m worth of investment.
“This is a Labour government that is both investing in and modernising the NHS.”