Junior doctors begin biggest NHS strike ever TODAY with thousands of ops delayed
Junior doctors strike from today at the start of the biggest period of industrial unrest in NHS history.
The British Medical Association starts a five day walk-out in England at 7am on Thursday after rejecting a 5% pay award offered by the Tories, who now refuse to negotiate. It comes after similar walkouts in Scotland were called off as junior doctors there are offered an inflation-busting deal.
England’s top doctor has warned ongoing strikes by junior doctors, consultants and radiographers is having “a major impact for patients in need of routine care”. And hospital bosses today warn the ongoing industrial action is costing the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds in “productivity losses”.
Junior doctors in Scotland have been guaranteed three years of above inflation rises including a 12.4% increase for 2023/24.
Dr Robert Laurenson, BMA junior doctors committee chair for England, said: “Today marks the start of the longest single walkout by doctors in the NHS’s history but this is still not a record that needs to go into the history books.
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People hold placards calling for fairer pay on a picket line outside Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital in London during a previous strike in April (AFP via Getty Images)“We can call this strike off today if the UK Government will simply follow the example of the government in Scotland and drop their nonsensical precondition of not talking whilst strikes are announced and produce an offer which is credible to the doctors they are speaking with.
“The pay offer on the table to junior doctors in Scotland and how it was reached throws into sharp relief the obstinate approach being taken by the Prime Minister and Health Secretary, Steve Barclay.
“The Health Secretary has said there can be no talks while strikes are planned – Scotland has proved him wrong.
“He said above 5% wasn’t realistic - Scotland proved him wrong. He refused to even acknowledge the concept of pay restoration – Scotland proved this is not only possible but essential. We have to get back to talks.”
The NHS is facing the longest-ever strike action by junior doctors followed by the first walk-out by consultants in more than a decade starting on July 20. This will be followed by a strike by radiographers from 25 to 27 July.
Previous industrial action has already seen more than 600,000 appointments postponed.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay is locked in a dispute with junior doctors over pay (SWNS)NHS England medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis said: “We will now see industrial action on 11 out of the next 14 days so we are entering an incredibly busy, disruptive period for the NHS.
“While staff continue to work hard to provide patients with the care they need, the next strike is the longest and most disruptive yet.
“Our staff are doing all they can, but we cannot continue like this – action is having a major impact for patients in need of routine care, and an increasing effect on NHS services and our hard-working staff as they try to maintain services and address a record backlog.”
NHS England has reduced its elective activity and admitted it may not hit Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s pledge to reduce waiting lists before the next general election.
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The total waiting list in England stands at a record 7.4 million appointments.
Initially NHSE has focused on reducing the longest waits of over two years.
Trust finance bosses were briefed by NHSE chief finance officer Julian Kelly, who told the Health Service Journal: “We will keep looking at where we get to [reducing] total waiting list size.
"That is going to depend upon what happens in terms of further industrial action… I think that is one for us to keep looking at as we think about planning into 2024 and 2025.”
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “Rishi Sunak’s refusal to negotiate with NHS staff is coming back to bite him."
The CPI measure of inflation is currently 8%.
The Government has demanded the BMA stop planning further strikes before it will restart pay talks. The BMA says junior doctors’ pay has dropped by 35% in real terms under the Tories and any 2023/24 deal should be viewed as a first step to restoring this.
However ministers are insisting the BMA must abandon this negotiating position before they will negotiate.
Doctors are demanding higher wages (Getty Images)Health Secretary Steve Barclay said: “It is disappointing that the BMA is going ahead with further strike action. This five-day walkout by junior doctors will have an impact on thousands of patients, put patient safety at risk and hamper efforts to cut NHS waiting lists.
“We were in discussions about pay and a range of other measures to improve the working lives of junior doctors until their representatives collapsed the negotiations by announcing further strikes. A pay demand of 35% or more is unreasonable and risks fuelling inflation, which makes everyone poorer.
“If the BMA shows willingness to move significantly from their current pay demands and cancels these damaging and disruptive strikes, we can get around the table to find a fair deal to resolve this dispute.”
By contrast the three-year deal agreed in Scotland will see junior doctors guaranteed a minimum pay uplift of inflation every year. The SNP Scottish government has also committed to negotiate further annual pay rises on top of inflation that must “make credible progress on the path towards pay restoration”.
BMA Scotland has halted planned industrial action while it ballots members whether to accept the deal.
Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chair of the BMA junior doctors’ committee for England, said: “The Government’s refusal to talk with junior doctors in England who have strikes planned, is out of keeping with all norms of industrial action. Doctors have a right to expect that as in Scotland, and as in many other recent industrial disputes, talks will continue right up to the last minute to try and reach a deal without the need to strike.
"The complete inflexibility we see from the UK Government today is baffling, frustrating, and ultimately destructive for everyone who wants waiting lists to go down and NHS staffing numbers to go up. We can only hope the Prime Minister and Health Secretary now take a moment to reassess their entrenched position and come to the table with a realistic and credible offer that we can put to our members in England.”
Hundreds of thousands more operations are expected to be postponed in the coming fortnight.
A previous three-day strike by junior doctors saw 23,000 staff off per day and resulted in 106,000 hospital appointments.
The number of operations which will need to be postponed in the next fortnight is expected to be much higher.
Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive at NHS Providers said: "We are now seeing an impact on productivity and cost in terms of strike action. Some of the biggest trusts saw a cost of £2.5 to 3 million. Scaling up to all trusts, that is a reported cost of £100 million for the April strikes alone.”
“We need a resolution right now to halt the erosion of the ability of the NHS to deliver on key priorities. Pay awards need to be fully funded, the NHS hasn't got the resources to fund them from existing budgets.
“Every penny counts in the context of delivering all the priorities for patients and for elective recovery and urgent and emergency care."
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