NHS is treating its doctors like crap, says Streeting

Health secretary Wes Streeting has admitted the NHS treats doctors like crap” but urged medics not to strike in the latest row about pay.

- REBECCA THOMAS

Resident doctors, formerly junior doctors, are being balloted for strike action after anger over the government’s latest pay offer of a 4 per cent pay rise for most doctors, which unions say is too low.

Mr Streeting has warned that industrial action would push back the progress made on reducing waiting lists and should be a last resort.

Writing exclusively for The Independent, he said: “The NHS is finally on the road to recovery. I am urging resident doctors today: don’t set this progress back. Strikes should always be a last resort, and three above-inflation pay rises in a row means we are far from that. Instead, let’s keep pulling towards recovery.”

Mr Streeting acknowledged that pay was not the only thing doctors were unhappy about, admitting that the NHS can be a “bad employer”.

He said: “They are rightly angry about the way they are treated by their employer. So am I. The NHS can be a bad employer at the moment, which ends up being bad for taxpayers and patients too. We spend hundreds of thousands of pounds training people, only to treat them like crap and cause them to leave to work in another health service or another career altogether.”

“The extraordinarily high levels of staff turnover in the NHS are in no one’s interest. When these problems arise, I want to work with resident doctors and other staff members to fix them,” he added.