HEALTH SECRETARY Wes Streeting has claimed that the NHS could collapse if doctors vote this week to strike over pay, as GPs consider options for industrial action over online access plans coming into force on Wednesday.

Resident doctors walked out of English hospitals for five days in July and the dispute over pay has still not been resolved.

The British Medical Association (BMA) also entered a dispute with the government last week over online access plans that it says endanger the safety of patients and staff.

Addressing a Labour Party conference fringe event today, Mr Streeting said: “What I’ve said to the BMA is: ‘The NHS is hanging by a thread — don’t pull it.'

“It wouldn’t be in the interests of doctors, the BMA’s members. There isn’t a more pro-doctor, pro-NHS government waiting in the wings.”

The BMA had given Mr Streeting until midnight last night to avert a dispute over the changes in the new GP contract for 2025-26.

From Wednesday, doctors’ surgeries in England will be required to keep their online consultation tool open for the duration of their working hours to receive non-urgent appointment requests, medication queries and administrative requests.

At the time, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England said the requirement would be “subject to necessary safeguards in place to avoid urgent clinical requests being erroneously submitted online.”

Today, the union said that GPs were considering a range of actions, as these safeguards had not been put in place and no additional staff had been brought in to manage what it predicts to be a “barrage of online requests.”

The BMA has said that the change could lead to “hospital-style waiting lists in general practice” and “reduce face-to-face GP appointments.”

It added that this could jeopardise patient safety as staff spend precious time trying to find the most urgent cases.

Many surgeries already have a system that allows patients to request consultations online, with staff reviewing these and booking appointments accordingly.

BMA GP committee chairwoman Dr Katie Bramall said that, in February, it had agreed the changes with the government, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England in writing on the condition that necessary safeguards would be put in place before on Wednesday.

“Now almost eight months later, it is deeply disappointing to see promises broken,” she added.