Tory health minister Will Quince was told to "get round the table" as the government came under heavy criticism on last night's edition of BBC Question Time.
A special edition of the long-running show dedicated entirely to health and social care was broadcast live from Hoddeson in Hertfordshire on Thursday night, with many in the studio giving a scathing review of Number 10's record on the NHS.
Alongside host Fiona Bruce, the panel included health and social minister Will Quince, Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, Dame Clare Gerada (president of the Royal College of GP), Lord Victor Adebowale (chairman of the NHS Confederation), and writer James Bartholomew.
Some of the strongest words of the night came from Lord Adebowale - who chairs a membership body for organisations that provide NHS services - when he highlighted the government's ongoing refusal to meet strikers' pay demands.
Responding to a member of the audience who asked whether "a completely free NHS" is "still a realistic option", he said: "If I went to the nurses who were looking after people in corridors and said, ‘what we need now is reform’, it’d be about as popular as a cup of cold sick.
"The first thing we need to do is acknowledge that we are in a crisis right now, people are on strike, government needs to get round the table."
Gesturing to Mr Quince, he said: "You need to sort it out - you need to get round the table and talk about pay.
The health minister took a moment in the next segment to defend his own record while discussing issues of staff retention, saying he wanted the NHS to be the "best place to work in the world, so I regularly meet with unions and others".
Mr Quince went on to say that the government had commissioned NHS England to publish a long-term workforce plan, which would help the health service organise its staffing levels for the future.
But Lord Adebowale turned up the heat on the health minister again immediately afterwards, telling a nurse in the studio who pointed out issues with staff retention: "Will says that he's listening to you - what you're saying is that there's no evidence that you've been heard. That's the problem."
He went on to suggest that "we should make nursing pay", saying it was "unacceptable" that some nurses have been forced to use food banks.
Other topics of discussion during the health special included whether social care should be brought under the "umbrella" of the NHS, and if GPs could be employed directly by the health service.
