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- By Sam Francis & Rachel Russell
- BBC News
Heath Secretary Victoria Atkins says avoiding a winter NHS crisis is her number one priority
Rishi Sunak may miss his target to cut NHS waiting lists if doctors go ahead with their plans to strike, the new health secretary has warned.
Victoria Atkins said strikes by doctors and nurses had led to “1.1 million appointments having to be rescheduled”.
Speaking to the BBC, she said avoiding a crisis was her “number one priority this winter”.
But she warned it may not be met, unless doctors dropped plans to take industrial action over the coming months.
“We are very much looking to meet those targets [to cut waiting lists], but I need the consultants to pass this settlement that we’ve put forward [and] I hope very much that doctors in training will be able to reach a settlement with us as well,” Ms Atkins said.
When asked whether Mr Sunak’s promise could be still achieved even if strikes went ahead, Ms Atkins said “we are doing everything we can”.
“Again, I would very much ask consultants to look at the settlement because actually it’s a very modern contract which I hope they’ll find acceptable,” she said.
The waiting list for planned NHS treatment in England rose to a record high of 7.77 million in September.
Ms Atkins, appointed to the role at the recent reshuffle, went on to say that planning for winter “started much earlier than usual” as an extra 5,000 beds have been created.
She said: “The NHS has been working very hard to prepare for this winter.”
Research by the Health Foundation think tank suggested industrial action by consultants and junior doctors had lengthened the waiting list by around 210,000, which is 3% of the list.
It comes as consultant doctors in NHS England are considering a deal that could potentially resolve the bitter pay dispute.
Ms Atkins has struck a more conciliatory tone and suggested there could be progress in talks over non-pay issues like rotas and conditions.
“To blame striking staff for record waiting lists is a misguided insult,” said Royal College of Nursing Chief Nurse Professor Nicola Ranger.
“With longer waits for ambulances waiting, record waiting lists and bed occupancy at 95%, the NHS cannot afford complacency,” she said.
Lib Dem treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney said the UK was “flying blind into another winter crisis and Atkins would not even deny it”.
“This Conservative government has already broken its promise on recruiting new GPs, now it looks likely that the promise to cut waiting lists will also be broken,” she said.
Shadow business secretary James Reynolds accused the government of planning “real terms cuts in the next parliament” for the NHS, as part of the recent Autumn Statement.
Labour has promised a major workforce expansion to help cut waiting lists and improve care if it wins the next general election.
Mr Reynolds said the health service also needs to be modernised as “one in five [NHS] trusts are still using the same diagnostic equipment, the same scanners, as they had put in in the last Labour government”.
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