Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has accused the BMA of ‘defensive attitudes’, stating that the trade union is ‘hostile to the idea that with more staff must come better standards for patients’.
In an interview in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday, the Labour MP said that the BMA treats him as a ‘heretic’ for demanding higher standards in primary care in return for more investment, and reiterated that Labour wasn’t going to allow a ‘something-for-nothing’ culture.
The BMA described Mr Streeting’s comments as an ‘attack’ and urged for anger about NHS patient standards to be directed ‘squarely at the Government and their failure to invest, not at those who work in the NHS or the unions who represent them’.
It added that NHS staff would be ‘extremely concerned’ by Mr Streeting’s comments.
Mr Streeting told the Telegraph: ‘Given that we have committed to more staff, I cannot for the life of me understand why the BMA is so hostile to the idea that with more staff must come better standards for patients.
‘Whenever I point out the appalling state of access to primary care, where currently a record two million people are waiting more than a month to see a GP, I am treated like some sort of heretic by the BMA – who seem to think any criticism of patient access to primary care is somehow an attack on GPs.
‘If anyone in the NHS thinks that they can demand more investment without demonstrating better standards for patients, they’ve got another thing coming. We are not going to have a something-for-nothing culture in the NHS with Labour.’
Mr Streeting also said the BMA ‘does doctors no favours’ when voting for motions such as cutting core hours to 9am-5pm, which he said ‘look like they’re living on a different planet and, worst of all, aren’t really thinking about the best interests of patients’.
He added: ‘I’m certainly not frightened to take on vested interests. And I’m not afraid to tell the BMA or other unions “no” – and I think people respect that honesty.’
Responding to the comments made by the Labour MP for Ilford North, Dr Emma Runswick, deputy chair of council at the BMA, said: ‘It wasn’t so long ago that Mr Streeting and the Labour Party were clapping healthcare workers for their contributions during the pandemic, so to hear them now accusing staff of a “something for nothing” culture and potentially supporting further real terms pay cuts will leave many staff extremely concerned.’
Dr Runswick added: ‘The BMA has repeatedly said that a strong workforce goes hand-in-hand with patient standards and that investment in the workforce is the only way to improve our NHS. We very much hope Mr Streeting will focus his attention on challenging this Government on ensuring that they will offer strong support to the doctors, nurses and other NHS workers who are now suffering unprecedented levels of exhaustion and burnout.’
Nurses are set to go on strike on 15 and 20 December across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, in hospital, community and mental health trusts which secured sufficient mandates in the RCN ballot, and ambulance staff across most of England and Wales will go on strike on 21 and 28 December.
A ballot of junior doctors on industrial action will open on Monday 9 January, while LMC leaders have voted in favour of the BMA balloting GP members on industrial or collective action if no ‘meaningful’ contract changes are agreed in 2023/24 or 2024 onwards, Pulse reported last week.
This may drive the debate as to what is a day’s work for a GP.
Shadow, sums it up. Doesn’t physically exist.
This is an individual with no concept of what is happening within the NHS /Primary care and and is one of the reasons these opposition parties fail to make the impact they should.
Covering up lack of real time knowledge of the NHS and its current workings with strong statements is simply embarrassing!
First rational statement by a Labour Health spokesman in many years; sadly Wes has been sent for re-education and has now publicly recanted and apologised for his thoughtcrimes.
Politically interesting, as while this is not what the Comrades want to hear, increasingly the wider public is beginning to realise that simply throwing more money at the NHS doesn’t seem to work, that the NHS is not sacred, and that other ways of doing things might actually work better. The next is Labour’s election to lose, and yet they may well yet drop the ball.
Dear Wes,
You seem to have missed the point that we as GPs also want to improve our service but our currently frustrated in doing so by a severe lack of staff especially GPs and nurses.
Even if you threw us loads of new money , that would only partly solve the problem as the staff take years to train.
Unfortunately the BMA negotiated ( without a mandate from the profession) a contract which assumed that ARSS staff could fill in for the lack of GPs and nurses.
There was no workforce plan , no estates plan and no reimbursement for managing and training the new staff and most importantly no reimbursement for GPs or nurses!
The money only comes to GPs if they can recruit the staff , but if you cannot , you keep all the work of the PCNDES but don’t get the money.
This budget is significantly underspent as there are not enough staff .
The cross party Health Select Committee report gets it about right so back that plan and get rid of the tick boxing of QOF and IIF and put that money into core and let us choose how to spend the resources to best improve care.
But please don’t forget we are being tied to a five year 3% income deal when inflation is at 10% and we are seeing more patients than ever before.
Amazingly the BMA despite negotiating the concept of a compensatory mechanism to cover inflation or excess profits in the contract they failed to negotiate the detail so it is not happening.
Shame On them !
But Wes , find me new nurses and GPs and money to pay them and I will gladly improve my service , but for now we cannot do any more without more trained staff.
It’s all about the workforce so draft a workforce plan , fund it and put that in your manifesto for the next election!
We quite possibly have enough GPs – if they could concentrate on Medicine and not nonsense.
Nonsense from patients, nonsense from regulators, nonsense from the NHS.
Pointless tick-boxing and meetings for the PCN, useless qof targets, appraisal and Revalidation, CQC inspections, hospital dumps.
Ending Appraisal alone would free up the time equivalent of somewhere between 400-800 full time GPs. Might also help persuade people not to retire quite so soon.