NHS Industrial Action

12. What steps he is taking to help prevent industrial action in the NHS.

Trade unions, representing the majority of NHS staff, are engaged in constructive dialogue with the Government, particularly around reform of Agenda for Change. All NHS staff have received above-inflation pay rises. No other staff in the public sector have received a pay rise as high as that of resident doctors. We offered extra jobs, prioritisation for UK graduates and help with out-of-pocket expenses. Against that backdrop, it is simply appalling that British Medical Association leaders led their members out on strike, even though a majority of resident doctors supported the Government’s offer.

I am pleased to report to the House that, thanks to NHS leaders and frontline staff, including the resident doctors who turned up, the NHS met its ambitious goal and 95% of planned elective activity went ahead, meaning that 850,000 patients got the procedures and operations they needed, despite the BMA’s reckless action. None the less, the time and money that this has cost us is detrimental, and I hope the BMA will come back to the table constructively.

After warnings from the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, my constituents are still rightly concerned that services may yet be cut, appointments lost and operations delayed as a direct result of the BMA’s industrial action. These strikes did not need to happen. What will the Secretary of State do to reassure patients in Bognor Regis and Littlehampton that their safety and wellbeing is a priority for this Government, who have no timetable and no plan, and who have made no progress towards ending these damaging rolling strikes?

I must say that a bout of collective amnesia has swept the Opposition Benches, because the Conservatives seem to have forgotten the absolute calamity of bad industrial relations over which they presided. The difference between Members on this side of the House and the Conservatives is that we have never closed the door to talks; we have always been willing to engage with resident doctors in good faith. Unlike under that party, resident doctors have received a 28.9% pay rise from this Labour Government. It is a reminder to resident doctors across the land that the grass is not greener on the other side, and that they should work with a Labour Government who want to work with them.