Wes Streeting sends strong message to PM over junior doctors' strikes which could happen 'every month into next year'
14 June 2023, 12:45
Wes Streeting's message to PM over junior doctors' pay dispute
The Shadow Health Secretary said there is a prospect of three days of monthly industrial action unless the government sits down with NHS staff to resolve the pay disputes.
Wes Streeting told Nick Ferrari at Breakfast: "I think the junior doctors don't want to be out on strike but they haven't got a table to sit around and negotiate."
"I would say to the Prime Minister given the scale of the disruption, if you've got an hour to spend with Boris Johnson negotiating gongs and peerages for Tory cronies, I think you've got at least an hour to sit down with junior doctors and negotiate an end to this terrible dispute", he added in a jab at the resignation honours list.
"Patients don't want the disruption, the government's got to sit down and negotiate a fair settlement", he added.
READ MORE: Junior doctors to stage three-day walkout in June as union calls for 'credible' pay offer
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Nick said: "You've been candid enough to tell me you have issues with their demand for 35 per cent. In Scotland you'll probably be aware that they've rejected 14.5 per cent, your view on that Wes?"
"I was surprised, I think we've got to get to a place where junior doctors can feel some light at the end of the tunnel", the Shadow Secretary answered.
"What we're faced with is the prospect of three days of industrial action every month into next year, and that would cause untold misery for patients", he went on.
READ MORE: The NHS needs to reform or it will die, warns Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting
"We've got a retention crisis in the NHS", he said, explaining his fear was that more junior doctors are leaving it, adding, "We can't afford to lose these people, they're the future of the NHS".
