Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
Wes Streeting Has expressed his “real fear” for NHS If next week’s resident of doctors The strike continues, warning that they cannot guarantee the safety of patients during a serious increase in flu cases.
The health secretary claimed flu is causing “probably the worst pressure on the NHS since Covid”, with the health service collapsing “one minute before midnight”.
Mr Streeting warned that the numbers could triple in the extreme and described the scenes at the hospital as “inexcusable”, stressing that the strike action “could be the Jenga piece that collapses the tower”.
Despite new data showing flu cases at a record high for this time of year after a 55 percent increase in a week, the chair of British Medical Association Denied that it would result in danger to patients Next week’s walkout.
bma chief Dr Tom Dolphin told Independent NHS Facing a “year-round” crisis that is no different until winter, insisting senior doctors will be prepared to be absent resident doctor So that patients can be kept safe.
The strike is expected to last from 7am on December 17 till December 22When the union accused the government of failing to make “substantial progress towards a viable agreement on jobs and wages”.
But as flu cases continue to rise in England, with an average of 2,660 flu patients admitted to hospital every day last week, concerns are growing over the health service’s ability to deal with the walkout.
Taking aim at the BMA, Mr Streeting criticized the trade union for choosing to strike in December because “they know this week will be the most painful for the NHS”.
Describing the situation as “pretty scary”, he told LBC: “So if you’ve got strikes And you’ve got the flu and you have all these trolleys in the aisles, and your demand is going up instead of going down, I don’t think there’s any lever I can pull, I don’t think there’s a huge amount of money I can throw, that means I can sit on your schedule and guarantee patient safety until next week.
Downing Street has called on the union to reverse its “shocking” plans to strike and put patients “in pain”, adding: “Let’s be clear what this decision means: their NHS colleagues will have to cancel Christmas plans to cover shifts, patients will have operations cancelled, and the NHS will prepare for the worst in the middle of an unprecedented flu season.”
Daniel Elkels, chief executive of NHS Providers, warned that the “tidal wave of flu” facing the NHS means the health service needs to be “every bit prepared to care for huge numbers of patients”.
Meanwhile, Dr Jeanette Dixon, president of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AOMRC), said she was “concerned about the impact on patients of the next five days of industrial action at this crucial time of year”, with the organization reporting that “there are 10 times more patients in hospital beds suffering from flu than two years ago”.
But Dr Dolphin said: “So the NHS is already struggling all the time… We are stressed, and this has been going on since the summer. So it’s not just a winter crisis, it’s really a year-round crisis.”
Addressing the winter flu crisis, he said: “On strike days, hospitals arrange for senior doctors to fill in for absent resident doctors.
“Sometimes they will call people in to do extra shifts on their schedule and sometimes they will redeploy people to provide planned care — care that can be postponed if hospitals feel additional staffing is needed … The same model that has worked for all previous strikes to keep patients safe will apply.”
He said: “They may need to do more of it, but the principle is still there, and it still keeps patients safe.”
Asked if he thought any additional patients would not be put at risk at this time of year, he said: “Yes, I do, because it’s up to hospitals to plan for where they will use the staff they have.”
But Mr. Elkels disagreed, saying Independent He believes more patients will be at risk.
While he said the NHS would “work absolutely hard” to continue operating normally, he warned of the impact of “this tidal wave of flu and its pressures”. [it’s] “Switching up the emergency part of the NHS”.
“The volume of 999 calls, the number of patients being admitted to hospital is huge – it feels like a moment where you need to bring all your workforce together, all hands on deck to care for the large number of patients,” he said.
“It appears that if a major part of the workforce decides to take industrial action next week, it will become a challenging task to provide care and planned care for all these patients.”
While Dr Dixon said the AOMRC would not comment on the rights or wrongs of industrial action, the organization urged the BMA to suspend its guidance stating that resident doctors are not required to inform their employers if they are planning to strike as a result of “the additional pressures caused by the particularly virulent flu virus”.
A spokesman said: “If managers were told which resident doctors intended to take action it would at least allow them to plan safely for emergency cover and perhaps consolidate resources on a regional basis.”
In a last-ditch effort to avoid a five-day strike, Mr Streeting offered the BMA a compromise that proposed tackling the bottleneck by giving UK medical graduates and doctors priority for specialist training – a proposal which the union has agreed to put to members in the coming days.
Under the offer, a further 4,000 specialist training places will be created, and their Royal College membership and examination fees will be reimbursed.
But fellow deputy chairman of BMA, Dr. Shivam Sharma Doubts have been expressed about the proposal, He described it as a “mixed bag”, saying that he found it “difficult to see members accepting it”.
Relations between the Labor government and the doctors’ union have grown tense in recent months, with Mr Streeting accusing the BMA of “juvenile delinquency” for planning to walk out for five consecutive days before Christmas.
But when it comes to relations with Labour, Dr Dolphin expressed a degree of optimism and said that the Government’s approach to labor relations had generally been “a big change from the previous Government”, adding that the Labor Party “recognizes the importance of trade unions”.
He said: “The conversations have been quite difficult because we are quite far apart in our initial positions, and some of the language used is unfortunate, but we understand this is a difficult conversation, so that is to be expected.
“I think as long as we can continue to have constructive conversations in negotiation meetings rather than blabbering about each other in the media, it will have a better outcome. And I think the Labor Party has been able to do that, perhaps some other governments wouldn’t be able to do that.”
But he said the government must come forward with a “reasonable offer that we can put to the membership” if they want to avoid more walkouts next year.
“We need a resolution on this,” he said. “We’ve been asking for well over a number of years, and now we’re going to escalate into an industrial dispute about it.”