Home Health Junior doctors’ strike toll: Nearly 70,000 hospital appointments cancelled after latest NHS strike, adding to a backlog of 1.5 million, shocking data reveals

Junior doctors’ strike toll: Nearly 70,000 hospital appointments cancelled after latest NHS strike, adding to a backlog of 1.5 million, shocking data reveals

0 comments
In the latest blow to patients, 67,034 hospital appointments in England were rescheduled due to a five-day strike by junior doctors from the British Medical Association (BMA) earlier this week.
  • Some 67,034 appointments were rescheduled due to the five-day strike

Junior doctors in England are awaiting a call from the new Labour government after officials promised to start pay negotiations on “day one”.

Health leaders have urged the government to resolve the long-running dispute as a “priority” after it emerged that tens of thousands of appointments were postponed as a result of the latest five-day strike.

The National Health Service in England reported that 67,034 appointments, procedures and operations were postponed as a result of the junior doctors’ strike.

He This means that 1,491,303 appointments have been postponed since the NHS strike (affecting staff such as doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and paramedics) began in late 2022.

But not all NHS trusts have provided figures on cancelled appointments, meaning the true scale of disruption is expected to be higher.

In the latest blow to patients, 67,034 hospital appointments in England were rescheduled due to a five-day strike by junior doctors from the British Medical Association (BMA) earlier this week.

NHS leaders have also said the real impact of the strikes is masked by the data, with many hospitals having stopped booking surgeries and other appointments on announced strike days.

NHS national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis said today: ‘These figures highlight the impact this latest round of strikes has had on patients, with more than 67,000 appointments postponed in recent days.

“But we know that in reality it is likely to be even higher.”

The latest figures from NHS England show that around 6.33 million patients were waiting for 7.57 million treatments at the end of April in England.

This figure represents an increase from the 6.29 million patients and 7.54 million treatments that there were at the end of March.

More than 300,000 people had been waiting for more than a year, compared to less than 2,000 before the pandemic.

By comparison, around 4.4 million were stuck in the system when the pandemic hit the UK.

The action marked the eleventh strike by doctors after their first strike in March 2023.

The BMA She says her demands are for a “pay restoration” given that previous NHS pay rises for doctors have not kept pace with inflation since 2008.

The junior doctors’ committee had been in talks with the government for three months in an effort to reach an agreement before the strike.

But the talks broke down. The conflict has collapsed despite both sides confirming last month that they had hired a mediator to try to “break the deadlock.”

At the time BMA chiefs said the Government had failed to make a credible offer and junior doctors were “fed up and running out of patience”.

Your browser does not support iframes.

Junior doctors in their first year now have a basic salary of £32,300, while those with three years' experience earn £43,900. Senior doctors earn £63,100.

Junior doctors in their first year now have a basic salary of £32,300, while those with three years’ experience earn £43,900. Senior doctors earn £63,100.

Professor Sir Stephen Powis added: ‘I am extremely grateful to staff for working incredibly hard to keep patients safe and prioritise care for those who needed it most, when demand for urgent and emergency services has been high.

‘Colleagues across the NHS will now do everything they can to ensure that patients who were due for consultations, tests or treatment get rescheduled appointments as quickly as possible.’

Junior doctors in their first year of training earn a basic salary of £32,300, while those with three years’ experience earn £43,900 and senior doctors £63,100.

Ministers previously offered junior doctors a pay rise of 8.8 per cent, on average, for the 2023/24 financial year.

However, the increase was larger for first-year doctors, who were given a 10.3 percent raise.

Ministers insisted this was the final offer, but former Health Secretary Victoria Atkins offered doctors an additional 3 per cent on top of this increase.

The union then claimed that this increased sum remained “completely insufficient”.

In April, consultants in England accepted a government offer, ending an industrial dispute that has dragged on for more than a year.

Salaries for young doctors: the truth

Junior doctors received a 6 per cent pay rise plus a consolidated payment of £1,250 in July, in line with the recommendation of the Independent Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration.

The package equated to an average increase of 8.1 per cent between 2022/23 and 2023/24, or 10.3 per cent for those in their first year of training.

The average basic salary for a first-year doctor rose from £29,384 to £32,397, while a junior doctor who had been a specialist trainee for six years or more saw their salary rise from £58,398 to £63,152.

Many are paid more for working overtime and receive increased wages for working unsocial hours.

Junior doctors pocketed the extra money despite vowing to continue striking, with some boasting that the extra income would subsidize further strikes.

Steve Barclay, who was health secretary from October 2022 to November 2023, and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described the deal as final and insisted there would be no further talks on pay.

But the British Medical Association has been in further negotiations with officials and ministers at the Department of Health and Social Care since October, resulting in an offer of an additional 3 per cent, which has been rejected by union representatives.

The BMA says junior doctors’ salaries have fallen by more than a quarter in real terms over the past 15 years.

Junior doctors have been demanding full restoration of their salaries (around 35 per cent) and have said they would not accept anything less, although senior union officials have suggested they could reach an agreement.

You may also like