Wes Streeting says 'irresponsible' junior doctors' leaders hindering care plan for sickest during NHS strike and reveals he has relative fearing op axe
The Health Secretary accused the The British Medical Association of telling members not to inform employers if they were taking part in a planned five-day walkout that starts next week.
The BMA has vowed to maintain safe levels of cover for emergency and maternity care from July 25.
But Mr Streeting said their actions meant it would be harder for it to be done, and called for doctors to ignore them.
Appearing before the Health and Social Care committee today he also revealed one of his relatives is among thousands who fear they will have an operation cancelled by the proposed industrial action.
Mr Streeting told MPs that while he accepted the doctors had a right to strike 'I cannot fathom is how any doctor in good conscience would make it harder for managers to make sure we have safe staffing levels'.
'It would make it harder for other staff who are going to be turning up to work that day, not least the staff who have not had a higher percentage pay rise, many of whom are paid less than resident doctors, he added.
Mr Streeting will hold talks with the BMA this week in the hope of averting the walk out over a demand for a 29 per cent pay rise.
The government has said there is no money left for another pay rise but has left the door open to making changes to the way doctors work.
This morning a self-confessed 'leftwing' doctor's leader warned only emergency care would be covered if medics walk out on strike for five days next week, putting thousands of routine operations at risk.
Dr Emma Runswick, deputy chairwoman of the BMA, said that resident doctors were not seeking to 'bring the NHS to its knees' with their latest walk-out in search of an eye-watering 29 per cent pay rise.
But she admitted that only emergency and maternity care would continue if they go ahead with five consecutive days of strikes starting at 7am on July 25.
This afternoon Mr Streeting told MPs a member of his own family is waiting for an 'inevitable' phone call to tell them their NHS procedure has been postponed as a result of planned resident doctor strike action.
He told the Health and Social Care Committee: 'We can mitigate against the impact strikes, and we will, but what we cannot do is promise that there will be no consequence and no delay, no further suffering, because there are lots of people whose procedures are scheduled over that weekend period and in the period subsequently, where the NHS has to recover from the industrial action, who will see their operations and appointments delayed.
'I have a relative in that position.
'My family are currently dreading, what I fear is an inevitable phone call saying that there is going to be a delay to this procedure.
'And I just think this is an unconscionable thing to do to the public, not least given the 28.9 per cent pay rise.'
Ministers and distinguished medics have critiscised the decision, coming at a time when billions is being ploughed into the NHS in a bid to clear backlogs and improve patient care.
IVF pioneer, Professor Robert Winston, resigned from the BMA last week, saying the strike could cause 'long-term damage' to people's faith in doctors.
Appearing on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Dr Runswick was asked is she was a 'militant leftie'.
'Oh yeah I am leftwing but that doesn't necessarily reflect the variety of views that that doctors have,' she said.
She also complained that some specialist residents were only being paid £34 per hour, adding: 'You would pay a plumber more.'
Mr Streeting is sympathetic to improving working conditions for doctors, but will not budge on salaries.
Today he said he was 'pleased' that resident doctors have agreed to 'sit down and talk to try and avert these strikes'.
But he stressed that the Government has been 'really clear' that it will not 'reopen this year's pay award'.
Lord Winston quit his membership following the strike announcement, writing in The Times: 'I've paid my membership for a long time. I feel very strongly that this isn't the time to be striking.
'I think that the country is really struggling in all sorts of ways, people are struggling in all sorts of ways.
'Strike action completely ignores the vulnerability of people in front of you.'
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said: 'The BMA have accepted the Health Secretary's offer to meet and we expect that to happen this week.'
Some 90 per cent of voting resident doctors backed the strike action, with the BMA reporting a turnout of 55 per cent.
The union has said that resident doctors need a pay uplift of 29.2 per cent to reverse 'pay erosion' since 2008-09.
In September, BMA members voted to accept a government pay deal worth 22.3 per cent on average over two years.
The 2025-26 pay deal saw resident doctors given a 4 per cent uplift plus £750 'on a consolidated basis' – working out as an average pay rise of 5.4 per cent.
The BMA call for a 29.2 per cent uplift is based on Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation, the measure of average changes in the price of goods and services used by most households.
Mr Streeting has said that the 'majority' of BMA resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – did not vote to strike and has called the forthcoming action 'completely unreasonable'.
However Labour has also been accused of crying 'crocodile tears' - as it prepares to make walkouts even easier.
Angela Rayner 's radical workers' rights Bill will soon scrap the 50 per cent turnout threshold which unions must meet to hold legal strike action.
Last night Conservative business spokesman Andrew Griffith told the Mail the Government's comments were 'totally hypocritical'.
He said: 'The unions are already licking their lips at the Employment Bill, which will unleash waves of low threshold strikes. By reducing the turnout required to trigger a strike, Labour are guaranteeing even more strikes. They are effectively giving unions the whip hand at the worst possible time.
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