HEALTH SECRETARY Wes Streeting’s last-minute offer to put off resident doctor strikes in England next Wednesday “does absolutely nothing on pay,” a union leader said today.

The British Medical Association (BMA) deputy co-chair Dr Shivam Sharma added that he found it “difficult to see members accepting this offer.”

Mr Streeting’s pledge to double the number of extra places that early career doctors in England can apply for in order to train in their chosen area of specialism came as flu cases jumped 55 per cent in a week.

The union has agreed to put it to resident doctors and cancel the five-day strike if a majority agree. 

BMA chair Dr Jack Fletcher described the proposals as a “mixed bag” and lacking in detail but told the Today programme that the union was willing to explore them as a potential solution.

“We’re putting this offer neutrally and factually to members,” he said. “There are some parts of this offer that contain things like important legislation, some way of fixing this jobs crisis, but let’s be clear, there are no more doctors at the end of this.

“We are still seeing a net zero in terms of an increase or decrease of doctors.

“There is nothing in this offer which goes in any way towards the significant pay erosion that we’ve had over the last 15-plus years. We’ve got a health secretary who’s pushing real-terms pay cuts on doctors in April next year.”

The offer would be put formally to BMA members should the strike get cancelled.

Today Mr Streeting said that “there is a tidal wave of flu tearing through our hospitals.” 

NHS national medical director Professor Meghana Pandit warned the “unprecedented wave of super flu is leaving the NHS facing a worst-case scenario for this time of year” and there was no peak in sight.

Society for Acute Medicine president Dr Vicky Price said that the “flu-nami” was hitting the NHS but this was “a sadly familiar picture of a system under relentless strain.”

Figures showed an average of 2,660 flu patients were in hospital each day last week, up from 1,717 the previous week.

At this point last year the number stood at 1,861 patients, while in 2023 it was just 402.