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Ahead of what is expected to be a heated Tory conference, health secretary Steve Barclay has had tense relations with striking senior doctors, accusing them of refusing to accept the offer despite being among the highest-paid public sector workers in the UK. Important Cancer Treatment.
Medical staff will push for higher wages from the Tories at their annual conference in Manchester this weekend, but Barclays told the Financial Times that their strike action has resulted in vital treatments being denied.
He also refused to say whether Rishi Sunak would be able to fulfill his promise to reduce hospital waiting lists following strike action. The total number of people waiting for non-urgent treatment was 7.2 million when Sunak made his pledge in January, but has now jumped to a record 7.7 million.
More than 1 million appointments and surgeries have been canceled since nurses launched a wave of strike action across the NHS in December. Despite the disruption, polls show a majority of the public still supports doctors. However, a survey this month found that only a minority support advisers, with a much larger share of less supportive colleagues.
Barclay said that people attach great importance to the contribution of doctors, “and so do I.” But when people hear “chemotherapy, dialysis or other time-critical treatments being refused”, people who earn around £130,000 a year and “have the means to make significant money in the private sector”. . .They found it surprising,” he said
He added that consultants’ earnings put them “in the top 2% of public sector pay” and doubled down on a claim by the British Medical Association, the doctors’ union, that newly qualified consultants would be Retire at age 65. – Receive a pension of up to £78,000 per year during your career.
The BMA points out that NHS data shows the average pension received by advisers in the most recent year was £41,756.
Barclays said his figures reflected pension tax changes agreed by the government as a concession to health unions.
But Dr Vishal Sharma, chairman of the BMA’s advisory committee, said it was “too rich for the Secretary of State to initiate the time-sensitive process at a time when the government has seen waiting lists increase dramatically, reaching record levels even before any strike action has been taken”.
Advisers’ earnings reflected the fact they had to work many extra hours to fill staffing gaps, something Barclays failed to acknowledge, he said, adding that only a small proportion worked in private jobs.
Sharma also disputed Barclays’ claims about pensions, saying doctors typically retire before the age of 65 and many “are unable to work full-time without interruption throughout their careers”.
Doctors are set to hold a massive rally outside the Conservative party conference venue on Tuesday, the second day of three days of action that will see junior doctors and consultants strike in a bid for a solution to above-inflation pay.
As the controversy continues, the latest figures show that about 100,000 people joined the non-urgent treatment queue in July.
The trajectory casts doubt on Sunak’s ability to ensure a reduction in the number of people waiting for outpatient appointments or surgery before the next election, one of his five “people’s priorities”.
Asked repeatedly whether the target would be met, Barclay said: “The Prime Minister himself has said that the strike has had a very significant impact on waiting lists.”
He added that strike action would have an impact not only on strike days, but also on “management teams, bandwidth and annual leave” on non-strike days. He insisted the health service had been “very successful” in reducing maximum waiting times “despite the difficulties”.
He said expanding capacity would help deliver on Sunak’s waiting list commitments, pointing to the opening of 119 community diagnostic centers and 43 surgery centers in the past few years to ease pressure on hospitals.
Barclays said artificial intelligence could also play a key role in improving and speeding up treatments, saying it presented “huge” opportunities for the health sector. He promised that artificial intelligence tools that help clinicians interpret brain scans, diagnose stroke patients and determine the best treatment will be rolled out to all 107 stroke units in England by the end of this year.
He noted that the technology will help patients receive treatment “an hour faster on average than they would have without it,” thereby improving treatment outcomes.
Convincing more patients to share their data could help maximize the technology’s potential, he said.
“One of the current paradoxes is that many people are happy to wear wearable technology and share their health data with a California company, but will be more cautious about sharing this data with their own government and the NHS, when the government and NHS When the purpose is different, they will be more cautious. The NHS aims to support their health needs,” he said.
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