Doctors may nonetheless strike throughout ‘superflu’ outbreak regardless of Wes Streeting’s last-ditch supply to triple speciality roles
The British Medical Association has sparked fury by refusing to call off strikes planned for next week while it considers an improved offer from Wes Streeting.
Resident doctors are due to walk out for five days from 7am on Wednesday as they pursue the creation of more senior roles and a 26 per cent pay rise on top of the 28.9 per cent they have received over the past three years.
The union yesterday said the medics – previously known as junior doctors – will vote online by Monday.
If they vote in favour of the Health Secretary’s latest proposals, the industrial action will be postponed while a formal ballot on ending the dispute takes place. Otherwise, the walkout will go ahead.
Health leaders are bracing for Britain’s worst flu season and warn a ‘double-whammy’ of industrial action and super-flu will harm patients.
The number of beds occupied by infected patients is already higher than ever for this time of year and rates are expected to pass the all-time peak within days.
Mr Streeting hit out at the refusal to stop the strikes while the initial vote takes place, saying: ‘I am astounded that the BMA’s leadership rejected this. It means their NHS colleagues will this week be cancelling Christmas plans to cover shifts, and patients will have their operations cancelled, as the NHS prepares for the worst.
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting leaves after attending a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street, London on December 9, 2025
‘I cannot understand the wilful casualness with which the BMA has chosen to inflict this pain. It is one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the BMA.’
Mr Streeting said hospitals were ‘running hot’ with 95 per cent of beds occupied, growing numbers of staff off sick and the new flu strain ‘more likely to affect older people’.
He added: ‘It is against this backdrop the BMA is threatening to douse the NHS in petrol, light a match, and march its members out on strike. No one should be in any doubt the BMA has chosen to play politics with people’s lives this Christmas.’
At least six hospitals have declared ‘critical incidents’ as they struggle to cope with the surge in demand and NHS bosses have urged anyone with coughs or sneezes to wear a mask or stay at home.
The Government’s revised offer includes emergency legislation next year to prioritise UK medical graduates and other doctors with significant experience working in the NHS for specialty training roles, and the increase of specialty training posts over the next three years – from the 1,000 announced in the ten-year health plan, to 4,000.
However, there is no extra money for a further pay rise.
Dr Jack Fletcher, chairman of the BMA’s resident doctors’ committee, said: ‘This offer is the result of thousands of resident doctors showing that they are prepared to stand up for their profession and its future.’
NHS England boss Sir Jim Mackey had branded the looming resident doctors’ action ‘cruel and calculated’ intending to cause ‘mayhem’.
Each five-day walkout costs the NHS around £300million in lost activity and payments to covering consultants.
