Thousands of NHS appointments in England are expected to be cancelled as junior doctors go on strike in a dispute with the Government over pay.
The 72-hour walkout by medics – who can have up to eight years of experience as a hospital doctor or three years in general practice – will run from 7am on Wednesday until 7am on Saturday.
It comes as NHS chiefs warned the number of people seeking emergency help will rise as the hot weather continues across the UK. The strike is the second this year by junior doctors and is expected to cause mass disruption, with thousands of patients having their operations and appointments rescheduled while the overall NHS waiting list continues to grow.
At the weekend, a dossier emerged from junior doctors that revealed how hospital patients’ lives are being put at risk by dangerous levels of understaffing. One young medic told how their workload led them to collapse while another was so exhausted she ended up in tears. Others, just weeks out of the classroom, had been left in charge as sickness and workloads dragged more senior staff away.
The British Medical Association (BMA) is calling for “full restoration” of pay, which it says has seen a 26% cut, and says the Government has offered only 5% to end the dispute. There have also been concerns about staffing, with some consultants saying they would not provide strike cover unless their employers agreed to a higher overtime rate.
Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairmen of the BMA Junior Doctors’ Committee, said in a statement: “Junior doctors are in despair at this Government’s refusal to listen.
“It should never have taken two whole rounds of strike action to even put a number on the table, and for that number to be a 5% pay offer – in a year of double-digit inflation, itself another pay cut – beggars belief. We have made clear that junior doctors are looking for the full restoration of our pay, which has seen a 26% cut. Junior doctors in England have seen their pay cut in real terms by more than a quarter over the last 15 years. Today they are demonstrating what that means to the survival of the NHS.”
Read more: Workload of junior doctors ‘puts patient lives at risk’, dossier reveals
A BMA poll of 1,935 junior doctors in England, published on Wednesday, found 53% are making plans to leave the NHS or are thinking about leaving as a result of the Government’s response to industrial action. Some 67% do not think the NHS in its current form will exist in 10 years and 88% expect the NHS to get worse over the next 18 months.
BMA chairman of council, Professor Philip Banfield, has written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urging him to intervene to resolve the dispute. He said in the letter: “No doctor wants to strike. They have been forced to do so to try and get your government to listen and understand the realities of how desperate things have become on the frontline of the NHS … I urge you to listen to our doctors and to meet with me and our Junior Doctors’ Committee as soon as possible to find a way forward in this dispute.”
Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said it was “extremely disappointing” the BMA was going ahead with further strike action. He said: “This 72-hour walkout will put patient safety and our efforts to cut waiting lists at risk. During recent meetings with representatives of the BMA Junior Doctors’ Committee, we made a fair and reasonable opening offer and were discussing both pay and non-pay issues until they chose to end the talks by announcing new strike dates.
“If the BMA cancels these damaging and disruptive strikes and shows willingness to move significantly from their position, we can resume confidential talks and find a way forward, as we have done with other unions.”
