- Planned care likely to come to a halt with thousands of appointments canceled
NHS leaders have warned that strikes by junior doctors and consultants this week will cause unprecedented disruption for patients amid a historic joint strike.
Planned care is likely to come to a halt with thousands of appointments cancelled, as the dispute with the Government over pay and conditions continues.
Consultants in England will go on strike for 48 hours starting tomorrow and will be joined by their younger colleagues on Wednesday. The young doctors will continue their strike on Thursday and Friday.
Both consultants and junior doctors will go on strike on October 2, 3 and 4.
Those dates coincide with the Conservative Party conference, where doctors have been accused of a “politically motivated” strike by scheduling the strike at the same time as the Conservatives are meeting in Manchester.
Planned care is likely to come to a halt with thousands of appointments cancelled, as the dispute with the Government over pay and conditions continues (pictured: a picket line with striking doctors in August).
The junior doctors have already gone on strike for 19 days since March this year and the consultants have gone on four days.
Staff are expected to work under Christmas Day cover during both strike periods, meaning emergency care will continue to be provided.
Before the strikes, the NHS’s national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, warned that the health service had “never seen this type of industrial action in its history”.
He added: “This week’s first joint action means that almost all planned care will be stopped and hundreds of thousands of appointments will be postponed, which is incredibly difficult for patients and their families, and poses a huge challenge for colleagues at the entire NHS. .’
He said people should continue to call 999 and use A&E as normal in emergency situations.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak began his term by promising to reduce NHS waiting lists, but ministers’ failure to resolve the dispute with junior doctors and consultants has cast doubt on whether that promise can be kept.
The strike in the NHS has been ongoing since December last year, and the number of appointments and operations canceled has now exceeded 900,000.
Figures released earlier this month showed the NHS waiting list in England hit a new record, with 7.7 million people – around one in seven of the population – waiting for treatment.
Consultants in England will go on strike for 48 hours starting tomorrow and will be joined by their younger colleagues on Wednesday. Young doctors will continue their strike on Thursday and Friday
Doctors’ union, the British Medical Association, has admitted it is using these patients as “leverage” in its bid to secure a deal.
Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, warned that strikes cannot become a “new normal”.
He criticized the lack of “meaningful dialogue” between the Government and doctors, warning it was “likely to cause a disruption in patient care like we have never seen before”.
Ms Cordery added: “We need this dispute resolved, and quickly, but there is deep and growing frustration among trusted leaders at the utter lack of action to even begin to break this deadlock.”
‘We cannot allow strikes to become commonplace for the NHS.
“With no end in sight, trust leaders are once again urging the Government and unions to sit down and talk so everyone’s care can get back to the real priority: providing safe, high quality and timely care to patients “.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said yesterday: “We fully accept the recommendations of the independent pay review body, which means doctors who started their hospital training this year will receive a 10.3 per cent pay rise, while the average junior doctor will receive 8.8 percent.” percent.”
The spokesperson added: ‘Consultants are receiving a 6 per cent pay rise and are already among the top two per cent of earners in the country.
“This pay award is final and the Health and Social Care Secretary is clear that his door is open to discuss non-pay issues if the BMA calls for an end to this damaging disruption.”
