Streeting accuses striking doctors of trying to 'fleece' public as they start latest 6-day strike with pay demands that could cost NHS £30bn a year

By SHAUN WOOLLER, EXECUTIVE HEALTH EDITOR Published: 13:52, 7 April 2026 | Updated: 13:52, 7 April 2026 Wes Streeting has accused striking doctors of trying to ‘fleece’ the public as they started their latest walkout with pay demands that could cost taxpayers £30billion a year The health secretary admitted the six day strike, which started at 7am today, will leave some patients ‘waiting in pain or anxiety longer than is necessary’ as appointments are cancelled. Resident doctors - previously known as junior doctors - have already cost NHS hospitals £3billion in lost activity and overtime payments to covering colleagues over the past three years. But Mr Streeting warned it would cost ten-times more every year if he caved into their ‘unreasonable’ demands as every other NHS worker would expect the same. The doctors have now taken to picket lines on 60 days across 15 rounds of strikes, with each day burning through £50million of NHS funds. The total spent to date could have built a ‘few’ hospitals or delivered millions of appointments, slashing NHS waiting lists faster, the secretary of state said. The British Medical Association is pursuing a 26 per cent pay rise on top of the 28.9 per cent resident doctors have received over the past three years. The union says this would cost around £3billion a year. The BMA is 'intransigent' and unwilling to move on an 'increasingly absurd set of positions', Health Secretary Wes Streeting (pictured) said, after pointing out the BMA had been the biggest winner of government pay increases 'by a country mile' But Mr Streeting told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning: ‘Let's then assume that other NHS staff would understandably demand the same. Then that cost would be more like £30billion pounds a year. ‘That is more than the entire cost of the Ministry of Justice's entire budget for running the criminal justice system. ‘Now this goes to the heart of the intransigence of the BMA. ‘Despite being the biggest winner by a country mile of public sector pay increases since this government came in - 28.9 per cent is what they got from us within weeks of taking office - they still went out on strike.’ The BMA’s resident doctors committee last month rejected a deal that would have taken medics pay rises over the past three years to 35 per cent and created thousands of new speciality training places that would have allowed members to further their careers. If they had accepted, some would have been earning more than £100,000 a year, while those in their first year out of medical school would have started on an average of £52,000 a year. Mr Streeting said it was hypocritical of the BMA to be striking in the face of such an offer while giving their own staff a rise of 2.75 per cent ‘on affordability grounds’. He told BBC Breakfast: ‘Why does the BMA think they can get away with telling their own staff they only get 2.75 per cent because that’s all they can afford, whilst rejecting a 4.9 per cent offer because that’s all the Government can afford. Tens of thousands of resident doctors - formerly known as junior doctors - have joined picket lines in today's strikes (pictured). Doctors' strikes have cost the NHS £3billion in the last three years The strikes will last six days - one of the longest the NHS has faced - and is over disputes over pay and job opportunities ‘It seems to me, the BMA aren’t willing to put their hands in their own pockets to pay their own staff, but they’re very happy to try and fleece your viewers, asking them to pay even more in tax than I think this country can afford.’ NHS England admitted this week’s walkout - the longest so far - will be ‘difficult’ but stressed services remain open and patients should continue to attend A&E and dial 999 or 111 as usual and attend scheduled appointments unless they are contacted and told otherwise. Mr Streeting told Sky News: ‘We don’t want strike action to put people off from coming forward if they need medical attention if they need it – emergency services are running. ‘We’ve managed to maintain we think about 95 per cent of planned care due to take place today, so things like tests and scans, surgeries, procedures. ‘But I’m not going to pretend that there aren’t consequences to this disruption, if you’re someone who’s waited for your test or scan or your operation, chances are you’ve been waiting a lot longer than I would like you to, and so psyching yourself up for that moment and then getting the cancellation can be both bitterly disappointing, and in some cases, will leave people waiting in pain or anxiety longer than is necessary. ‘And it costs the NHS significantly. Every time the BMA takes resident doctors out on strike, it costs the NHS about £50 million a day. ‘So this strike action is going to cost us about £300 million.’ Speaking to LBC, the minister said: ‘We’re doing everything we can to keep the show on the road. The British Medical Association (BMA) rejected the goverment's deal for a 4.9 per cent average pay increase which Health Secretary Wes Streeting said would have made them 35.2 per cent better off than four years ago The government deal was to bring in 1,000 new training positions next month but these have been scrapped as the strikes have made them no longer 'financially or operationally' feasible ‘In fact, emergency services tend to run better when resident doctors are on strike, ironically, because we have more senior doctors who step in to cover their shifts, and I’m very grateful to doctors who are stepping forward to cover emergency services today.’ It comes after Sir Jim Mackey, chief executive of NHS England, expressed his frustration with strikes and said the health service could overhaul frontline staffing to become less dependent on ‘unreliable’ resident doctors. One patient whose appointment has been cancelled told BBC News he was ‘very worried’ as a result. Adrian Emery, 55, from Nottinghamshire, was due to have a telephone appointment on Tuesday after having a number of mini strokes. His appointment, his first follow-up appointment to review medication and speak to a specialist, was initially rescheduled for mid-June, but that has also been cancelled now, the broadcaster reported. ‘I’m very worried, because my grandfather actually had a very serious stroke. I hope I don’t have a full stroke before I am seen,’ he added. Dr Jack Fletcher, chairman of BMA’s resident doctors committee, said: ‘I’m genuinely very sorry and it is regrettable that we’re having to take this action and I’m very sorry to patients, however, we feel like we had no choice. ‘We gave the government several opportunities to avoid it, and they chose not to. ‘I don’t think that it’s in the interests of the Government to be using doctors’ jobs as political pawns when we have an epidemic of corridor care, when we have people struggling to get GP appointments, we have waiting lists, which still remain stubbornly high.’ No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.