Dear colleagues,

We wanted to thank you and your teams for the incredible effort you have all put in to keeping the NHS open for as many patients as possible over the last five days.

We’ve spoken to so many staff and leaders during the weekend and the beginning of this week and are fully aware of the personal sacrifices you have made to ensure patients get the care they need.

Whether rearranging leave, foregoing personal commitments or working additional hours – your commitment to ensuring the safety of our patients during the strikes has been exemplary and has shown, once again, that you put patients first in everything you do.

It’s impossible to feel anything other than real pride in the NHS.

We’re also aware that the efforts of the last five days have been tougher on some of you than others. We’re particularly conscious of those resident doctors that have worked hard over the period of the strike: it’s important that we all take the time to be supportive of each other and look out for colleagues who’ve found the last few days particularly tough.

For our part, we’ll continue to do everything we can to avoid future industrial action and keep the door open for ongoing discussions with the BMA. We know there’s always more we can do to improve the working conditions for all of you and this remains an absolute priority both for the new NHS leadership team and in our conversations with all union colleagues.

We really are starting to see early, but very encouraging, signs of recovery across the NHS. Waiting lists are the lowest they have been in two years, satisfaction with GPs is on the up, 4.6 million appointments were delivered in the past year, and our 10 Year Health Plan is getting underway.

It’s still really challenging, but all of this is down to you and your teams, who we know feel as passionately as we do about getting the NHS back on its feet.

Once again, thank you for being a part of this fantastic team effort over the last few days.

Yours sincerely,

Rt Hon Wes Streeting MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Sir James Mackey, Chief Executive Officer, NHS England