Politics latest: Transport secretary Mark Harper quizzed on Sophy Ridge as government and unions remain in strike deadlock

Chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) Dr Philip Banfield is speaking to Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme show after union bosses warned more nurses strikes that would see twice as many workers take action will be announced.

He says the BMA has been highlighting the waiting list figures for 10 years and now it has become an “absolute national scandal”, with patients suffering “trauma” despite the best efforts of staff.

“It is brutal on the frontline at the moment. We see our GP colleagues, buckling under the weight not only of people who are worried about things that are going on now, but they’re bearing the brunt of the backlog because people keep going to their GP,” he says.

He recalls how his wife, who is a GP, was in A&E for 12 hours with chest pain “thinking that she was going to die on her own because I wasn’t around at the time”.

“This is the kind of trauma that is being suffered by patients and the staff could not be trying harder,” he says.

Asked about the nurses strikes, he says “now was the time” to try and find a resolution.

“The country is getting sicker as a whole. Let’s get people back into work,” he says.

Dr Banfield goes on to say that doctors and nurses do not want to go on strike and “feel like they are being backed into it”.

He adds: “Doctors are not the problem they are the solution. You need us as experts to deal with the problems of the NHS. We are not averse to change. 

“It’s a complete fallacy that doctors want the health service to stay as it is. 

“We’re the first people to say we want change in the health service. Can you listen to frontline staff and please, can you invest properly in a health service we can be proud of.”