B

Baroness Merron (Lab)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 16 December 2025

Debate

NHS: Winter Preparedness

Contribution

In my view, the BMA has chosen Christmas strikes to inflict damage on the NHS at a moment of maximum challenge. It has refused to postpone them to January, which would have helped patients and other NHS staff, as the noble and gallant Lord referred to, to cope over Christmas. At present, our position is that the offer that we made to prevent those strikes happening has not been accepted, as the noble and gallant Lord will know. We are now reviewing where we are going to go. We completely understand the effect on morale and the exhaustion among staff who are covering. We are managing that to the best of our ability. I am most grateful to NHS staff in supporting us to be ready for winter and tackling the industrial action’s effects.

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