Striking NHS medics WON’T be offered any more cash, officials confirm – as health leader warns walkouts will swallow £200million for protecting against winter crisis

Striking NHS medics won’t be offered any more cash, the Health Secretary confirmed today.

Junior doctors and consultants will stage fresh walkouts next week in their ongoing row with the Government over pay. It will mark the first time they have staged join action in the health service’s history, with leaders labelling it a ‘nightmare scenario’.

But Steve Barclay today insisted that there would be no more talks about pay with the British Medical Association — the union coordinating the action in England.

It comes as the Government confirmed that it will hand the NHS £200million to bolster the service during the winter, which is it’s busiest time of year due to an influx Covid and flu patients, while this year it will also content with strikes.

But health chiefs today warned that the funding will be swallowed up by the health service’s £1billion bill for covering industrial action — with the walkouts scheduled for September alone set to cost more than £200million.  

Junior doctors and consultants will stage a joint 24-hour walkout from 7am on September 20, with the medics only offering a Christmas Day level of service — meaning emergency care will be provided, but no elective operations will take place.

Consultants will also walkout on September 19, while junior doctors will continuing striking until 7am on September 23.

NHS Confederation chief executive Matthew Taylor described the strikes as ‘the nightmare scenario that NHS leaders have long feared’ and warned that it is ‘inevitable’ that patient safety is at risk. 

The medics have demanded an above-inflation pay rise, with junior medics previously setting this figure 35 per cent. 

The Government has offered the medics, along with other public sector workers, a six per cent pay rise. Junior doctors were also given a one-off payment of £1,250.

It means basic pay for first year junior doctor has jumped from £29,300 to £32,300, while starting basic full-time pay for consultants rose from £88,300 to £93,600. 

The Health Secretary told Times Radio this morning: ‘We made a fair and final settlement in terms of pay.’

Mr Barclay added: ‘Their demand is 35 per cent and I don’t think offering 35 per cent is fair, to nurses, to paramedics, to those in our armed forces, to teachers to others, both across the public sector but also in the private sector.

‘And we’ve got a commitment also as a government to get inflation down, that matters to all within the NHS and all across the economy.

‘So we’ve got to be balanced in our approach.’

It comes as the Prime Minister today confirmed that he is giving the NHS £200million to ‘to bolster the health service during its busiest period, while protecting elective care so we can keep cutting waiting lists’.

The announcement followed a roundtable with the PM, Mr Barclay, clinical leaders and NHS chiefs yesterday to discuss preparing the NHS for the colder months. 

The NHS is plunged into chaos every winter due to a surge of patients struck down with seasonal bugs, respiratory illnesses and, in recent years, Covid.

But this year it also has to contend with a record 7.68million people in the queue for care, strikes among its workforce and a staffing exodus.

Mr Barclay, said: ‘I know winter brings immense challenges for the NHS which is why we are working with health leaders to make sure we are prepared earlier. 

‘We are working closely with trusts to see how we can continue to use technology and new ways of working to strengthen health and social services.’

He added: ‘Yesterday I heard and witnessed first-hand how all parts of the NHS are coming together to make sure it is resilient to winter pressures for years to come.’

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, he said the plans will focus on tackling delayed discharges — which last winter saw hospitals unable to give sick Brits beds because they were occupied by people fit to go home.

He said virtual wards — which allow patients to receive treatment and care at home rather than at hospital — will reduce pressure on hospitals.

Mr Barclay said: ‘It’s hugely popular. Many patients say that they would much rather recover from their operation at home in a familiar setting but they want to do that knowing they’ve got the comfort of some safety net in terms of the clinical support that’s available.’

The health service has already been given £1billion as part of an emergency care recovery plan to boost its number of beds, ambulances and virtual wards. 

And £40million has been given to boost social care capacity and discharge rates.

However, NHS Confederation’s Mr Taylor warned that the financial boost won’t be felt due to the cost of ongoing strikes among the workforce. 

He said NHS leader ‘may question how much impact’ the cash will have, as it is close to winter and strikes have already cost the health service £1billion.

Mr Taylor said: ‘The risk is that this money is simply absorbed to cover existing and escalating costs elsewhere, with patients seeing little benefit in terms of day-to-day care, waiting lists or performance.

‘There remain serious challenges to be resolved, the most pressing of which is industrial action, and simply wishing it away will not make that happen. We need to see this situation settled as it has already gone too far.’

He warned that the costs of strikes by consultants, junior doctors and radiographers in September alone ‘will likely cost well over £200million, negating the effects of this new money, and putting patient safety at the highest level of risk we have seen for a long time’.