The British Medical Association (BMA) has warned against public “scaremongering” over the current flu outbreak as its members vote on whether to go ahead with planned strikes in England next week.
It comes after Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he was “extremely concerned” about the “double whammy” of rising numbers of flu patients in hospitals and upcoming strikes by resident doctors.
BMA resident doctors committee chair Dr Jack Fletcher said that while the union was not “lessening” the impact of flu, Streeting “should not alarm the public into believing that the NHS will not be able to care for them”.
The result of the BMA vote will be known on Monday. If rejected, a five-day strike will begin on Wednesday.
The government says the deal provides legislation that prioritizes British medical graduates for specialist training jobs from next year and offers to cover the costs of training expenses such as exam fees.
The agreement does not include a salary increase. In an article in The Guardian, Sir Keir Starmer said the pay of resident doctors – the new name for junior doctors – has increased by 28.9% in the last three years.
In a statement published on Saturday morning, the BMA called on the Health Secretary to “focus his time and attention on delivering a deal that will stop next week’s strikes, rather than claiming that strike action could cause the collapse of the NHS.”
The BMA has written to chief executives of NHS Trusts in England saying it recognized that in the event of a strike, resident doctors could be forced to return to work to “maintain safe patient care”.
The letter, signed by BMA council chair Dr Tom Dolphin, says: “As doctors, we at the BMA want to ensure that patients remain safe.”
Speaking to LBC earlier this week, Streeting said the current situation was “probably the worst pressure the NHS has faced since Covid”.
He wondered why the BMA had not accepted his offer to delay the strike until January “if they just wanted to kick me in the ass”.
“I can only assume that the reason they are refusing to do so is because they know this week will be very painful for the NHS,” he added.
Echoing the Health Secretary, the Prime Minister said “reckless” strikes “should not happen” as the NHS faces its “most precarious time since the pandemic”.
Sir Keir wrote in The Guardian on Friday that the BMA had been sent a new offer, as well as the possibility of rescheduling the strikes until after Christmas.
“Don’t get me wrong, of course I would prefer they were cancelled… But given the circumstances, I wanted to be sure that we have left no stone unturned in our efforts to protect the NHS,” he said.
The BMA said it will ask its members whether the government’s offer will be enough to call off Wednesday’s strikes.
If members indicate yes, they will be given time to consider the offer in more detail and a follow-up formal referendum will be held to completely end the dispute.
Some experts say the flu arrived early this winter and looks to be a particularly unpleasant season because of a new mutated version of the virus that is circulating.
Many call it the “super flu,” but it is not more serious or more difficult to treat.
An average of 2,660 patients a day were in hospital with flu in England last week, the highest figure for this time of year since records began in 2021, and a 55% increase on the previous week, NHS England said.
It is important to note that the records only go back to 2021 and therefore do not reflect the two worst flu seasons of the last 15 years, which were seen in 2014-15 and 2017-18.
Figures show flu cases are also increasing in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
However, NHS London medical director Chris Streather said the flu situation was “well within the limits” of what the NHS could cope with and hospitals were better prepared for major disease outbreaks since the Covid pandemic.
Speculation is probably not helpful and may cause people concern, he added.
