Streeting attacks striking doctors all over the press, but it’s clear who the real villain is

Wes Streeting has been endearing himself and the government to the public again – this time about the upcoming resident doctor strikes. Last week, it was announced that resident doctors (previously known as junior doctors) would be striking across England for five days starting from the 14th November.

Whilst much of the mainstream media and politicians are framing this as doctors wanting more money, the British Medical Association says the dispute is because they have only ever been offered an “insulting and well below inflation” pay rise of 2% in 2022. Once inflation is taken into account, this is still lower than what resident doctors were paid in 2008.

Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee said:

We talked with the government in good faith. We hoped the government would see that our asks are not just reasonable, but are in the best interests of the public and our patients and would also help stop our doctors leaving the NHS.

While we want to get a deal done, the government seemingly, does not, leaving us with little option but to call for strike action.

The ol’ Streeting charm offensive

In response, instead of being desperate to stop the strikes, Streeting has apparently been eager to paint the resident doctors as the villains in the story and turn the public against them.

On Sunday, he told Laura Keunnsberg that the resident doctor strike had “little to no public support” and would be “inflicting more harm and delays to patients”.

After pointing out that a deal that does not include pay rises remains on the table he said:

What we will not do, however, is be held to ransom and what I will not do is allow those costs of strikes to be inflicted on other NHS staff who are working constructively with us, or on patients in terms of the services that they receive.

One significant thing in the way Streeting speaks about the strikes is that he almost solely refers to the British Medical Association and not resident doctors. This is because he’s seemingly attempting to paint the narrative that this is something the BMA are pushing and not something the doctors themselves want.

Writing in The Independent, he said

The strikes are also without the backing of resident doctors themselves, the majority of whom did not vote for this. Unlike the BMA leadership, most of these committed clinicians just want to get on with their jobs.

However, the BMA reports that 97% of first-year doctors voted for the strike, with a turnout of 65%. So it seems like they want it too, Wes.

It’s clear who the real villain is

Over on Sky, he attempted to threaten to take away speciality training places:

My message to the BMA today is you can go out on strike if you want, and cost us another quarter of a billion pounds, you will be hurting patients, hurting the NHS’ recovery but also be hurting resident doctors who are crying out for speciality training places. I want to provide them, but I won’t be able to afford them if they go out on strike.

However, as Streeting has refused to negotiate on pay and focus on training, the BMA have also highlighted that resident doctors have a lack of opportunity in the field. A review of NHS job postings in The British Medical Journal found that there were 91,999 applications for just 12,833 speciality doctor posts. Streeting’s solution to this 7:1 ratio has been to pledge just 1,000 new jobs in the next three years.

He’s also been attempting to blame the floundering state of the NHS on doctor strikes, insinuating they’re to blame for privatisation. He also said in his Independent article:

There is not a more pro-NHS, pro-doctor government waiting in the wings. If the BMA tries to wreck the NHS’s recovery, the only person who benefits is Nigel Farage.

However, as The Good Law Project previously uncovered, Wes Streeting has taken over £372,000 in donations since 2015 from people or companies with links to private healthcare. So it seems like Nige isn’t the only one who benefits.

What’s clear here is that Streeting much prefers to fight his battles in front of a TV camera instead of constructively at the negotiating table, but he needs to remember the cameras will also be there for his downfall.

Featured image via the Canary