Striking physician’s emotional plea as Wes Streeting hits again with NHS vow
Doctors are appealing to Mirror readers not to see them as “selfish” as they prepare to go on strike across the NHS.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting and strike leader Dr Jack Fletcher are locked in a battle for hearts and minds and both write for the Mirror today as resident doctors prepare for a six-day NHS walkout in England.
Mr Streeting says his offer amounts to a 4.9% pay rise which is among the highest in the public sector, while doctors insist it is not what it seems, amounts to a pay cut after inflation and comes after their real-terms pay has already been cut by 21% since 2008.
READ MORE: Doctors announce six-day NHS strike across England after EasterREAD MORE: Wes Streeting slams striking doctors’ union leaders – and gives one-week ultimatum
Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the British Medical Association’s Resident Doctors Committee (RDC) and an acute medicine doctor based in the North East, writes: “Think about the last time you were in A&E or on a ward. Maybe it was your mum’s hip. Your dad’s chest pains or one of your children, poorly in the early hours of the morning. And think about who was there. Not the Health Secretary. It was a doctor, bleary eyed, probably in their 20’s or 30’s – who knew what to do.
“From today thousands of those doctors across are walking out of every NHS trust in England for six days. I will be one of them. If you’ve already made up your mind I am being selfish, I’m asking you to hold that thought just for a moment.”
Resident doctors in England, hospital doctors below the level of consultant who were formerly known as junior doctors, will down their stethoscopes just after the Bank Holiday weekend from 7am Tuesday. Mr Streeting stated the headline pay offer was 3.5% for 2026/27 but the overall package of measures would have led to resident doctors getting an average pay rise of 4.9%. This included reimbursement for exam costs and an additional 1,000 medical training places.
The strike action, the 15th by resident doctors since 2023, will be the joint-longest walkout in the dispute and result in thousands of hospital appointments being cancelled.
The Government’s Position
After some initial conciliatory language on both sides, Wes Streeting accused the BMA’s powerful Resident Doctors Committee of unilaterally rejecting the deal instead of putting it to a vote by doctor members. The Government says its 2026/27 offer included the reimbursement of mandatory exam fees and a rise in the number of speciality training posts.
Mr Streeting said the deal would have led to resident doctors getting an average pay rise of 4.9% this year but some aspects of the deal – such as the 1,000 extra training places – will have to be withdrawn to cover the NHS costs of the strike action. Some estimates put this cost at £250million in lost activity and emergency cover.
Mr Streeting said: “It is disappointing for patients and staff alike that the BMA has decided to press ahead with strikes this week, despite the deal we put to them which would have seen resident doctors 35.2% better off, on average, than they were four years ago. My heartfelt thanks go out to all those hard at work this week.”
The BMA Resident Doctors Committee’s Position
The dispute centres on claims by the RDC that the Government made “last minute changes” to the deal so that some aspects of the pay increase was phased in over three years.
RDC leader Dr Jack Fletcher stresses that with RPI inflation running at 3.6%, their headline pay deal of 3.5% is still a real-terms pay cut. He said: “The Health Secretary may well be ‘disappointed’, but he is failing to acknowledge a deal was taking shape until his government quietly watered it down, reducing the money on the table, then stretching what was left over too many years to make it worthwhile. “
He previously said: “We are happy to accept that pay has risen in real terms in the last four years, but to say it has gone up 35% is wildly overstating the case, conveniently ignoring some of the worst inflation in recent history during that period. Resident doctors are still a fifth down in real-terms pay compared to 2008.”
Most other NHS staff including nurses and midwives have only been offered 3.3% for 2026-27. Other public sector staff including 1.5 million council workers have been awarded a 3.3 per cent pay rise.
Pay settlements for this financial year were decided when inflation was coming down and independent experts expected to drop below 2% later this year. The US-Israel war with Iran has changed that inflation is now expected to rise. The latest retail prices index (RPI) annual inflation rate was 3.6% as of February while the Government’s preferred measure, the consumer price index (CPI), was 3%.
Wes Streeting – Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
With resident doctors going on strike, many have been left wondering what this means for patients and services up and down the country. One thing is for certain. I will not let this strike action break our country’s greatest institution.
Strikes will mean cancelled appointments but in the last round of industrial action the NHS held strong and delivered 95% of its planned care thanks to the hard work of NHS staff around the country.
The Government is working with NHS teams to curb the disruption as much as possible, to help people access care, if and when they need it. As a result, doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff are stepping in to pick up the pieces, with the most urgent cases prioritised. That means, if you need help, it will be there for you. Please don’t let this put you off using your local NHS.
Emergency services and life-saving care including A&E, maternity, critical care and urgent cancer treatment will continue as normal and if it’s an emergency, call 999 or head straight to A&E, just as you would any other day. For less urgent concerns, NHS 111 and your local GP or pharmacy can and will continue to support you, with healthcare advice, treatment or prescriptions. If you have an upcoming routine appointment your hospital will be in touch to let you know if it needs to be rescheduled, otherwise, you should attend as normal.
Our NHS is made up of incredible people, many of whom will be covering shifts over the course of the week, but they will be under more pressure than normal, so you may face slightly longer waits. I understand this will be frustrating but I applaud the commitment of those continuing to work during challenging times like this. If you need more information, please use your NHS app or head to the NHS website, which will be kept up to date throughout.
The NHS is still very much open and still here, for you. It’s just a shame that – having received a 28.9% pay rise already – the BMA have rejected a deal that would have put more money in doctors pockets and created more training opportunities to progress their careers.
Dr Jack Fletcher – chair of the BMA Resident Doctors Committee
Think about the last time you were in A&E or on a ward. Maybe it was your mum’s hip. Your dad’s chest pains or one of your children, poorly in the early hours of the morning. And think about who was there. Not the Health Secretary. It was a doctor, bleary eyed, probably in their 20’s or 30’s – who knew what to do.
From today thousands of those doctors across are walking out of every NHS Trust in England for six days. I will be one of them. If you’ve already made up your mind I am being selfish, I’m asking you to hold that thought just for a moment.
I’m serious about bringing this dispute to an end, but the more you look at how it has been handled, the harder it gets to point fingers at doctors. My colleagues and I have spent months in the negotiating room, and a deal was taking shape. At the last minute, the Government quietly watered it down, reducing the money on the table, then stretching what was left over too many years to make it worthwhile.
What is even harder to understand is the Government scrapping the promised 1000 training posts. One thousand places, gone, overnight, one thousand opportunities for doctors who have studied hard, dedicated their lives to the NHS, destroyed. This Government is using our next generation of consultants and surgeons as a bargaining chip. Just think about that.
If we keep treating doctors as an inconvenience rather than an asset, we will end up with an NHS that simply doesn’t have enough residents or consultant doctors to give patients the surgery and procedures they need.
I am not a ‘junior’ doctor, and neither are any of my colleagues. We are fully qualified medical professionals, running wards, diagnosing illnesses, and deciding who needs emergency surgery. But we have seen our pay fall behind the cost of living, for well over a decade. We are not asking for a pay rise, we are asking to get back to where we were in 2008; there’s a difference.
Resident doctors are ready to end this dispute with a deal that’s in the interests of doctors and our patients. I ask that you remember that next time you’re in a hospital, as you, or a member of your family, are looked after by a resident doctor just like me.
We want to be valued, as we value the patients in our care. Not with warms words or applause, but with a wage that reflects what we do. We’re willing to end these strikes, Mr Streeting needs to be too.
