A four-day strike by junior doctors in England last week led to more than 195,000 canceled appointments, National Health Service data showed, laying bare the impact of industrial action on patients.
(Bloomberg) — A four-day strike by junior doctors in England last week led to more than 195,000 canceled appointments, National Health Service data showed, laying bare the impact of industrial action on patients.
At the height of the walkout, some 27,361 staff were not at work, according to a statement on Monday from NHS England. The tally of canceled appointments is likely to be an underestimate because not all workforce data was returned by hospital trusts, and some areas had avoided booking appointments for the strike days, NHS national medical director Stephen Powis said.
The fresh disruption means nearly half a million appointments have been rescheduled over the past five months due to walkouts, piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s administration to resolve a series of disputes — largely over pay — with nurses, ambulance workers and doctors.
“It is becoming increasingly difficult and the impact on patients and staff will unfortunately continue to worsen,” Powis said. “Each of the 195,000 appointments postponed has an impact on the lives of individuals and their families and creates further pressure on services and on a tired workforce.”
Sunak’s government last month had appeared ready to halt a wave of industrial action that’s hit schools, railways and hospitals. But the 96-hour walkout by doctors brought industrial unrest back to the fore just as the government is preparing for a set of local elections on May 4. A national poll is widely expected next year.
Sunak’s Conservative party is currently trailing the opposition Labour party by a double-digit margin in national opinion surveys. Earlier on Monday, he acknowledged that strikes in the National Health Service make it more “challenging” to cut patient lists, as more than 7 million Britons wait for routine hospital procedures.
The government remains “committed to finding a way through” the industrial disputes, Sunak told reporters after a speech in London. “We can sit down and have reasonable and constructive negotiations.”
But substantive talks have yet to even begin with doctors, with the government saying their opening demand for a 35% pay increase is excessive. And progress on ending a dispute with nurses was derailed Friday when members of the the Royal College of Nursing rejected a fresh pay deal that their own union leaders had recommended.
The RCN has since said nurses could strike until Christmas unless more money is offered by the government, and the Unite union also warned Monday of a wave of new NHS strikes starting next month.
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