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Unless doctors stop striking and help Labour fix the damage inflicted by the Tories, the NHS will end up dying under a government led by Reform, Wes Streeting has warned.
Speaking at a special meeting of the British Medical Association’s representative body on Sunday, the health secretary said hospitals and GP surgeries were “hanging by a thread” after more than a decade of neglect by the Conservatives.
Progress is being made at rescuing the NHS from the biggest crisis in its history, Streeting insisted, but said it required “a team effort” and would only be successful if medics became “friends, not foes”.
“The alternative is strikes continue to hold back the NHS’s recovery, the costs of industrial action slow down investment in new technology, equipment and additional specialty places, the changes that we all agree need to be made are blocked, and patients continue to be failed.
“From there, the public will conclude that Labour has failed on the NHS and they will elect a Reform government instead – a party that has openly said it will replace the NHS with an insurance-based system.
“That’s the consequence if we fail. That’s the stakes that I’m dealing in and don’t be under any illusions. I think you know perhaps better than I do because you work in it.
“The NHS is hanging by a thread. So I urge the BMA not to pull on it.”
Streeting’s direct plea to the union came after a tumultuous summer in which resident doctors in England staged five consecutive days of strike action amid a bitter dispute with the government over pay.
“The government has changed. The attitude to the NHS and its staff has changed. I need the approach of the BMA to change too.
“Rescuing the NHS from the biggest crisis in its history is a team effort and it will only happen if we are on the same side, working together. I can’t do this alone. I need partners, not adversaries.
“I am in this job to fight for patients every day, just like you, and just like you I am in this job to save the NHS every day. If we join forces, it’s a fight we can win. If we are pitted against each other, the whole country loses.”
He added: “When I said the NHS was broken I did not just mean for patients. I am clear that the future depends on building a health service that values you, invests in you, and supports you. We can only do that as friends, not foes.”
Doctors were still “fighting the last enemy”, Streeting said. “The Conservatives curbed your pay – we’re raising it. The Conservatives created training bottlenecks – we’re tackling them.
“The Conservatives took the NHS to the worst crisis in its history – we’re putting it back on the road to recovery. If we fail and Nigel Farage gets his hands on it, then it is Reform and die.
“I don’t know about you, but I do not want that on my conscience.”
However, Streeting was told that a BMA survey of 2,874 doctors showed many had “deep concerns” over his 10-year plan to mend the NHS.
Dr Tom Dolphin, chair of the BMA council, said morale remained low among NHS staff and there were still high levels of vacancies. The government “will need to explain how fewer staff will be able to deliver more care,” he said.
