Health secretary raises eyebrows by saying industrial action didn't 'impact' the NHS | indy100

Related video: Doctor on strike reveals eye-watering number of people on NHS waiting lists

Sky News

Victoria Atkins, the former safeguarding minister who replaced Steve Barclay as health secretary in Rishi Sunak’s reshuffle last month, was this week’s government minister offered up to the Sunday political programmes, but her comments about soaring NHS waiting lists has been raising eyebrows online.

During her appearance on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the ex-BBC political editor showed Atkins a graph which demonstrated that the number of people waiting for hospital treatment in England “was going up way before the pandemic”.

In her reply, which touched upon the government putting “more money than ever before” into the NHS and recruiting a “further 50,000 nurses” into the health service, the health secretary said: “We do have to acknowledge that the impact of the industrial action has really had an impact on waiting lists.

“Since December, we’ve seen some 1.1 million appointments have had to be rescheduled.”

Earlier this week consultants were offered a new pay deal which would see some senior doctors get a salary increase of nearly £20,000, according to data from the British Medical Association.

Yet even Kuenssberg herself pointed out after the episode was broadcast that the “impact” of the pay dispute on waiting lists isn’t as significant as Atkins makes out.

She wrote: “Atkins points finger at nurses and doctors taking industrial action, but remember waiting lists were going up before the strikes, and before the pandemic.”

And she wasn’t the only one to take issue with Atkins’ comments:

Victoria Atkins claims the NHS waiting list is due to industrial action because she\u2019s a shameless lying prick. Waiting lists were one of the reasons for strike action, it was never just about pay but patient dignity and conditions which are in crisis due to the Tories.\n#bbclaurak
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Everyone must feel very reassured now that Health Secretary Victoria Atkins has blamed industrial action for the NHS waiting list, which was over 7million when the strikes started. \n#bbclaurak
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Industrial action has categorically not caused the waiting lists. \n\nIndustrial action is happening as a result of short staffing and under resourcing. \n\n#bbclaurak
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Tory MP Victoria Atkins: \u201cWe do have to acknowledge the impact of the industrial action has really had an impact on waiting lists\u201d\n\nAnd here\u2019s a graph to prove just how deceitful she is\u2026\n\n#bbclaurak
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Victoria Atkins blames industrial action over the last year.\n\nWas that why waiting lists rose in every year under the Tories?\n\nAnd @bbclaurak rightly asks why the government sat on its hands for months and not negotiate and resolve the dispute?
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How can we blame industrial action for the past 13 years of rising NHS waiting lists? #bbclaurak
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Victoria Atkins blaming industrial action for NHS waiting lists going up\n\nDoes she not realise there were 4.5 million on NHS waiting lists pre strikes, pre pandemic
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#bbclaurak Thank you for holding Victoria Atkins to account. It is infuriating to hear the Health Secretary blame the strikes for the waiting lists. As a junior doctor and ovarian cancer patient, I can assure you that the Tories are to blame. The data shows us so.
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Incredibly disingenuous of Victoria Atkins to blame strikes for the NHS crisis. NHS waiting lists were already at crisis point before the pandemic. The Government is failing patients after years of running the NHS and health services into the ground. #bbclaurak
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Oh, and the fact that Barclay, her predecessor, was accused of being “arrogant” over his approach to industrial action – namely that he “won’t even talk to them” – probably didn’t help matters…

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