THE Health Secretary has urged the public to show common sense today – but admitted strike-hit services are under severe pressure.
Steve Barclay also said he’d assess the impact of today’s industrial action before any decisions were made over the need for new legislation to potentially make future health strikes unlawful.
Speaking to GB News Breakfast he said: “The trade unions have been unwilling to give exemptions to cover all life threatening and emergency calls. They’ve said that they wanted to negotiate those on a local trust basis, and for paramedics to respond from the picket line, and obviously that creates a much greater sense of uncertainty in terms of the ability of the ambulance service to respond to calls.
“So what we say to the public is just to trust common sense but obviously if there is something that is an emergency to still call 999. We’ve got additional staff in the call centres. For example on Sunday evening I was in the East of England, which isn’t actually on strike and has boosted its call centre numbers by 50%. But we’re just saying to the public to be cautious today to reflect the fact that the service will be under very severe pressure.
“I’m also hugely grateful to our military who once again are responding and we’ve got military drivers providing contingents. We’ve got community services being stood up. We’ve got first responders. We’ve got a whole range of people responding to support patient safety and my focus today will be doing all we can to protect patient safety.
“But the bottom line is without these national agreements with the trade unions, there is uncertainty over the level of calls that they will respond to. So that’s why we’re saying to the public, bear in mind the fact that the system is under pressure as a result of the strikes, but it’s also under pressure, because we’ve had a surge in flu cases. We’ve got an uptick in COVID cases, and we’ve got many parents who are also concerned about strep-A, so the system is under pressure. And we’re just asking the public to be mindful of that.”
Defending the Government’s record on investment in health he continued: “In terms of the resources the Chancellor, in the autumn statement, prioritised both the NHS and also social care. He pledged an extra 6.6 billion into the NHS over the next two years, and the biggest ever increase of any Government into social care.
“So that’s why we put the record investment into social care to address those who are medically fit to leave hospital.”
Mr Barclay was pressed on why new laws hadn’t been rolled out to ban strikes and impose minimum service levels of the type we have in the rail industry.
He said: “In terms of the rail industry we have and we brought forward legislation in terms of minimum service levels. Clearly we will need to look at the data form today to see whether the assumptions that the trade unions have promised materialise.
“They’ve said on the one hand, they want to cause maximum disruption but on the other hand, they don’t want to cause harm to patients. So we’ve tried to work constructively with the trade unions. But of course, if we see significant patient harm, then as a Government, we will need to look at what he’s done in terms of minimum service levels.”
