Christmas strikes could be the Jenga piece that brings down the NHS, warns Wes Streeting.
Wes Streeting has cautioned resident doctors that strikes, combined with a surge in flu over the Christmas period, could act as the fragile final move that causes the NHS to buckle. The health secretary emphasized that the NHS is facing a challenge unlike any since the pandemic and urged resident doctors to accept the government’s offer and discontinue industrial actions.
He described the situation this way: “The entire NHS team is working around the clock to keep services operating. But we face an incredibly precarious position. Christmas strikes could be the Jenga piece that collapses the tower. That’s why I am appealing directly to resident doctors to accept the government’s offer.”
NHS figures published on Thursday indicated flu cases have reached record levels for the time of year, rising 55% in a week to an average of 2,660 patients in hospital each day last week.
In an opinion piece for The Times, Streeting projected that hospital admissions in England could triple by the peak of the season and described current hospital scenes as “inexcusable.”
Dr Chris Streather, regional medical director at NHS England, acknowledged that flu admissions were “pretty bad” but insisted they do not approach the scale of the Covid-19 pandemic. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the NHS is managing for now and that flu rates continue to rise. He asserted that the system remains within its coping capacity, noting that lessons from the pandemic had improved preparedness, including more critical care capacity. He warned, however, that the worst-case scenario still demands vigilance.
Streather cited about 2,500 flu-related hospital patients in England—a 55% weekly rise, equating to three large hospitals being full of flu patients. He stressed that while the situation is serious, it is not comparable to the 2020 pandemic, and he urged careful language to avoid unnecessary alarm while promoting healthy behaviors.
Streeting argued that if the British Medical Association (BMA) leadership were to call off the planned Christmas strikes, it would provide the NHS with much-needed certainty at a time when it is actively fighting the flu epidemic. The BMA planned to consult its members via an online survey to determine whether a new government offer would be sufficient to suspend strikes next week. The poll closes on Monday, two days before the five-day strike is set to begin.
The union described the new offer as including: legislation to guarantee priority for homegrown doctors in training for specialty training roles, an increase in specialty training posts over the next three years—with 1,000 start positions in 2026—and funding for mandatory examinations and Royal College membership fees for resident doctors.
