Wes Streeting today suggested striking doctors can have higher pay – if they agree to slash gold-plated pensions.
The Health Secretary put the option on the table as he launched an excoriating attack on the decision to stage a five-day walkout.
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced earlier this week that resident doctors in England and wales – formerly junior doctors – will take industrial action on consecutive days from 7am on July 25.
They were awarded a 5.4 per cent increase by the government, but are demanding an eye-watering 29.2 per cent to achieve ‘full pay restoration’.
Nurses are also balloting on strike action, raising the prospect of more huge disruption for patients.
Making a statement in the Commons today, Mr Streeting condemned the action as ‘unreasonable’ and ‘tragic’ – warning it would wreck efforts to clear waiting lists after Covid.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting put the option on the table as he launched an excoriating attack on the decision to stage a five-day walkout
He stressed doctors had already enjoyed the highest settlements in the public sector two years running, and other workers were ‘feeling the pinch’ much more.
‘Five days of strike action means patients and their families receiving the phone call they are currently dreading of being told that the operation or appointment they’ve been waiting for, often for far too long, is being cancelled and delayed,’ Mr Streeting said.
‘I know how I’d feel if this happened to a member of my family currently waiting and I asked them to consider how they would feel if it happened to a member of theirs.’
Mr Streeting said that while resident doctors were ‘out on the picket line’, other NHS staff would be ‘inside picking up the pieces and working in harder conditions to cover for the consequences’.
He said: ‘Renegotiating this year’s pay award would be deeply unfair to all other public servants. Such a deal would be paid for by their future earnings and with the greatest respect of resident doctors, there are people working in our public services who are feeling the pinch more than they are.
‘And even if it wouldn’t be unfair on public sector workers, it is unaffordable. It should be apparent to anyone that the public finances this Government inherited are not awash with cash.
‘So, I will not and cannot negotiate on this year’s pay award. And I am not going to lead resident doctors up the garden path by making promises unless I know I can keep them.’
Speaking on LBC radio later, he said he was open to ‘discussion’ about the relationship between pension pots and take-home pay.
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced earlier this week that resident doctors in England and wales – formerly junior doctors – will take industrial action on consecutive days from 7am on July 25. File picture
Critics often point out that inflation-proof, final salary-linked pensions are a massive benefit in the public sector, that hardly exists in the private sector any more.
Mr Streeting said: ‘We’ve got this situation, where the pension pot, by the time people become consultants, is so big that consultants lobby us to change the tax rules, because they’re taxed so heavily on the pensions because they’re that valuable that they like, ‘oh, I might as well not bother working. My pension’s so valuable.’
‘Now, if the BMA want to come to me and say, you know what? Given that challenge, we think we would rather have a slightly less generous pension in order to have higher pay today… those are the sorts of issues you can get into in a discussion.
‘But I’ve offered to talk. They haven’t taken me up.
‘And that’s one of the many reasons I think this is unreasonable.’
Resident doctors have gone on strike 11 times since 2022, leading to almost 1.5million appointments being cancelled or rescheduled.
