NHS leaders are calling for leadership from government to plot a path out of the industrial action impasse that will see thousands of hospital doctors walk out for an unprecedented six days from tomorrow (3 January).
The NHS in England is just hours away from the longest period of strike action in its 75-year history in what is usually the most pressurised week of the year, with NHS leaders warning that patient safety will again be put at serious risk.
Junior doctors, members of both the British Medical Association (BMA) and Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA), walk out from tomorrow morning for 144 hours of uninterrupted stoppages.
The NHS Confederation said that rising levels of flu, norovirus and Covid in hospitals, combined with higher NHS staff absences, are heightening the risks to patients.
NHS leaders are calling on unions to respond promptly to requests for junior doctors to be recalled and for the judgment of senior managers to be trusted when they say they need urgent cover from junior doctors.
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Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “Parts of the NHS will be skating on very thin ice, and they will need the BMA to back any recall requests for junior doctors when services find themselves under extreme pressure.
“With the chances of the strikes being called off all but over, the focus of every NHS leader and their staff is now on mitigating as many of the considerable risks that they face as possible. But they shouldn’t have to be forced into this position again, especially at such a busy time for local services.
“To face almost 150 hours of continuous stoppages is a serious and unprecedented risk – and one that NHS leaders and their staff have never experienced before. The good news is that the NHS has again prepared extensively and has had to become adept at planning for strikes.
“While they will again do all they can to mitigate the risks, especially for patients needing emergency care, they have again been left with no choice but to schedule in less activity in anticipation of the strikes. That means more delays for patients who have faced lengthy waits for routine treatment.”
This week’s strike will add to the lengthening toll of patients who have had their appointments and operations cancelled and then rescheduled. Figures published by NHS England last week revealed that the total number of appointments and operations cancelled reached 1.22 million in 2023. December’s doctors strike resulted in more than 86,300 cancellations.
Staff absences in England due to Covid have risen by 51% since the end of November with an average of 2,597 members of staff off due to the virus every day last week, compared to 1,715 people at the end of November.
On Friday, Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs, said: “It’s regrettable that at our mutually agreed deadline during talks, the government’s offer on the table would have still resulted in a real-terms pay cut for doctors this year.
“This led to our committee unanimously voting for further strike action. It is a shame the government could have avoided the unnecessary disruption to patients if they had presented a credible offer, especially if there was, as suggested by the secretary of state, another offer for them to make.”
They added: “The health secretary says she wants to ‘get this done’ and appeals to us to return to negotiations, yet we never walked away. It is her government that refuses to talk to us while strikes are scheduled. However, this is an inconsistent approach as the same government engaged in talks with barristers during their strike action.
“We are clear that we will talk at any time, right up to the 11th hour, and if talks result in a credible offer we can put to members, then further strikes can be averted. If the government is serious about wanting to resolve this dispute, it must drop its obstructive precondition and return to the table. Our door is open.”
Junior doctors in England, members of the BMA and HCSA, are striking from 7:00am on Wednesday 3 January until the same time on Tuesday 9 January 2024. A separate 72-hour strike is scheduled by the BMA from 15 January in Wales.
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