There are hopes the strike could be called off. The doctors’ union, the British Medical Association, has agreed to poll its members to see if they are willing to call off the walkout, with the results of the vote to be released on Monday.
In an interview with LBC, Streeting questioned why the BMA hadn’t taken up his offer of pushing the strike back to January “if they wanted to just give me a kicking”.
He said: “I can only assume that the reason why they refuse to do that is because they know that this week will be most painful for the NHS.”
The number of patients in hospital with influenza has risen more than 50% in the past week, with officials warning there is still no sign of it peaking yet.
Flu has come early this winter, and it looks to be a particularly nasty season because of a new mutated version of the virus which is circulating, say experts. Many are now calling it “super flu”, but it is not more severe or harder to treat.
In another interview, the health secretary said there were no plans to ask the general public to wear masks, although if people visiting hospitals or care homes were encouraged to wear one, he would ask them to do so.
The medical director for the NHS in London, Chris Streather, said the flu situation was “well within the boundaries” of what the NHS could cope with and that hospitals were better prepared for large disease outbreaks since the Covid pandemic.
Speculation is probably not helpful and can cause people to worry, he added.
