Junior Doctor claims Tories have made NHS ‘one of the worst healthcare systems’

A junior doctor has criticised the Conservatives for making the NHS "among the worst in Europe".

Dr Andrew Meyerson appeared on Sky News on Friday after junior doctors in England launched their fifth round of industrial action over pay and working conditions.

The strike will last until 7am next Tuesday (August 15), which may result in appointment cancellations due. Since December it has been estimated that the strikes have cost the NHS £1 billion.

Asked why junior doctors are striking again, Meyerson told Sky News: "Can I be brutally honest with you? I don't believe the British people are safe with this government running the NHS."

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"I firmly believe that - they have allowed the system to go from the best in the world from 10 years ago to among the worst in Europe now," he added.

Meyerson also called it "awful", saying that the Tories "do not deserve to look after the NHS any longer."

Health Secretary Steve Barclay claimed that the strikes were benefitting nobody and worsening care for patients. In response, Meyerson said: "This is very much a last option for us. We do not want to be here, we are desperate to go back and work.

"You see that the government in Scotland handled it in a very different way, making a reasonable offer to our BMA colleagues in Scotland, to signal to them that their work is important, that their labour is important.

"We have not had any similar commitment from this government to any aspect of patient care in this country for a very long time."

Meyerson added that the waiting lists were "pushing five million" even before the Covid pandemic, but this was then exacerbated due to the government's "disastrous" response to the global health crisis. He said that it was "heartbreaking" to "see the patient experience as awful and terrible as it is right now".

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has refused to engage in pay negotiations, Meyerson told Sky News "Rishi Sunak is the son of an NHS GP. You'd think he'd actually care about the health service, but he's going to be responsible for seeing its demise."

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