NHS Providers has claimed health services are at a ‘tipping point’ as trusts try to cover another four-day strike by junior doctors.
The walkout by members of the British Medical Association began today (11 August) at 7am, with costs to services estimated at £1bn. This is the fifth strike by junior doctors in England since the pay dispute began.
A further two-day strike is planned by consultants later in August.
Trusts and staff are pulling out all the stops but, with no end to strikes in sight, the sheer volume of planned treatment being put back due to industrial action will make it almost impossible for trusts to cut waiting lists as much as the government wants,” said Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, the membership organisation for the NHS hospital, mental health, community and ambulance services.
The BMA argues that junior doctors have seen a 26% erosion in real-terms pay over the past 15 years, and is calling for a 35% pay rise, which the government has described as “unreasonable”.
The government awarded a payrise of 6% plus £1,250, which works out as an average of almost 9%.
Talking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chair of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, said the cost of lost productivity and cover of £1bn would have matched the cost to settle the pay dispute last October.
“We are moving into ideological and frankly indignant sort of territory when it comes to dealing with this government,” he said.
Health secretary Steve Barclay responded that his door “is always open to discuss how to improve doctors’ working lives”.
“Patients are bearing the brunt of the impact of continuous strikes across the NHS and further action by the BMA will cause more appointments and procedures to be postponed,” he added.
BMA chief Professor Philip Banfield said it was “deliberate obfuscation” to blame doctors for missed appointments and waiting lists and urged the government to put forward a “credible offer”.
“The government was presiding over this problem long before any industrial action – waiting lists were steadily getting worse for the decade leading up to the pandemic arriving,” he said.
“In fact, it is these waiting lists – and doctors being unable to do their jobs because of underinvestment, workforce shortages and rota gaps – that lie behind the strikes they’re being forced to take now.”
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
Figures from NHS England released earlier this month showed a drop in the number of junior doctors going on strike since disputes began – there was a 31% fall in July compared with strikes in March.
Employee relations opportunities on Personnel Today
Browse more Employee Relations jobs
