Wes Streeting has warned local doctors that strikes and a surge in flu cases over the Christmas period could be “part of the Jenga” that will lead to the collapse of the NHS.
The Minister of Health stated that National Health Service faced “a challenge unlike any it has seen since the pandemic” and called on resident doctors to accept the government's offer and stop their actions.
He said: “The whole NHS team is working around the clock to keep the show going. But this is an incredibly dangerous situation. The Christmas strikes could be the piece of Jenga that brings the tower down. That's why I'm appealing directly to local doctors to take up the government's offer.”
NHS data published on Thursday showed flu cases are at a record level for this time of year after jumping 55% in a week to an average of 2,660 patients in hospital each day last week.
I am writing to TimeStreeting said the number of patients in hospitals in England could triple and called scenes at the hospital “inexcusable”.
Dr Chris Streeter, regional medical director for NHS England, said that while the impact of flu admissions in hospitals was “pretty bad”, it was “nothing close to the scale” of the Covid pandemic.
Asked whether talk of the NHS collapsing had been overdone, Streather told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: “The NHS is coping at the moment. Flu rates are still rising.”
He added: “It's well within what we can handle. One of the things we've learned during the pandemic is that our preparations for dealing with large outbreaks of respiratory viruses have gotten better. We've increased the number of critical care and intensive care beds during this time, so we're better prepared. And it's a different scale than the situation we faced in March 2020, we need to prepare for the worst-case scenario.”
Streather said hospitals in England were admitting 2,500 flu patients, a 55% increase on the previous week and the equivalent of three major hospitals filled with flu patients.
“This is a serious problem,” he said. “It's nothing like the scale of the pandemic in 2020. And I think we need to use our language to get people to adopt healthy lifestyle choices without causing alarm at the moment.”
The Health Secretary said the cancellation of planned Christmas strikes by the British Medical Association (BMA) leadership would “give the NHS confidence this week as it tackles the flu epidemic”.
The BMA said it would consult members by asking them online whether the government's new deal was enough to call off strikes next week.
The online survey closes on Monday, two days before the start of the five-day strike.
The union said the new proposal includes new legislation to ensure domestic doctors in training are given priority for specialty posts, an increase in the number of specialty posts over the next three years, with 1,000 of them starting in 2026, and funding for mandatory exams and Royal College membership fees for resident doctors.
