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  • 1 year ago
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has condemned the BMA’s five-day strike as “reckless and unnecessary,” saying he and the prime minister are “angry on behalf of patients.” He praised NHS staff, including many resident doctors defying the strike, for cancelling leave to keep services going. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

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00:00As we enter what will be a really challenging five days for the NHS, I want to say a massive thank you to NHS staff and frontline leaders who are doing their level best to be there for patients over what will be a challenging period, in many cases cancelling their own annual leave, cancelling their own plans to be at work, doing the right thing, including many resident doctors who've ignored their union and are turning up for work.
00:24We are doing everything we can to minimise the risk to patients and to minimise the disruption but I want to be honest with people, what we can't do is eliminate disruption or risk to patients, we know that there have been operations, appointments and procedures already cancelled and we know that there will be real challenges over the next five days and that is why the Prime Minister and I are so angry on behalf of patients and other NHS staff who are working hard to keep the show on the road,
00:52that the BMA have taken what is reckless and unnecessary action, forgetting that they've had a 28.9% pay increase from this government and this government was also willing to go further on improving their working conditions, including some of the out of pocket expenses that doctors incur, so while the BMA's action is unnecessary and unreasonable, we'll be doing everything we can to make sure the NHS is there for patients and we won't let the BMA hold this country to ransom.
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