NHS strike toll: Nearly 1.5 MILLION cancelled appointments, knowledge exhibits

Junior doctors in England are awaiting a call from the new Labour government after officials promised to open pay talks 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 walk-out. 

NHS England said that 67,034 appointments, procedures and operations were postponed as a result of the industrial action, with 23,001 staff absent from work at the peak of the action. 

It means 1,491,303 appointments have been postponed since NHS industrial action — which has involved staff including doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and paramedics — kicked-off in late 2022. 

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

Health chiefs have also said the real impact of strikes is masked by the data, as many hospitals have stopped booking in surgeries and other appointments on announced strike days. 

NHS national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis said: ‘These figures bring into sharp focus the impact that this latest round of industrial action has had on patients, with more than 67,000 appointments postponed in recent days.

‘But we know in reality this is likely to be even higher.’ 

Latest NHS England figures show around 6.33 million patients were waiting for 7.57 million treatments by the end of April in England.

This is up from 6.29 million patients and 7.54 million treatments 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.

For comparison, around 4.4million were stuck in the system when the pandemic reached the UK. 

Medics in training across the NHS downed their stethoscopes and went on strike for five full days from June 27.

The latest walkout was the 11th strike by junior doctors in 20 months.

The BMA claims its demands are for ‘pay restoration’ given that previous NHS salary rises for medics have not kept pace with inflation since 2008. 

The junior doctors’ committee had been in discussions with the Government for three months in efforts to reach a deal prior to strike action.

But talks broke down despite both parties confirming last month that they had brought in a mediator to try and ‘break the logjam’.

At the time BMA bosses claimed the Government had not made a credible offer and junior doctors were ‘fed up and out of patience’. 

Professor Sir Stephen Powis today 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 be doing everything they can to ensure patients who were due to receive consultations, tests or treatment get appointments rebooked as quickly as possible.’ 

Meanwhile, Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive, NHS Providers, said: ‘For patients and an NHS stretched to the limit it just can’t carry on like this.

‘The new government and unions must make bringing disruptive strikes to a halt a priority and act immediately to find a way to resolve the long-running junior doctors’ dispute.

She added: ‘The next government must reset the relationship with NHS employees so that leaders of hospital, mental health, community health and ambulance trusts can put all of their time and energy into cutting waiting times and looking after patients instead of dealing with industrial action.’

Last week during a campaign visit to Staffordshire, Sir Keir Starmer told reporters: ‘This is a problem the (Conservative) Government has failed to deal with… what we will do is ensure on day one we start the discussion.’

The BMA’s junior doctors committee has said Labour comments about pay rises being a ‘journey and not an event’ align with their pay restoration goals.

But Labour’s Wes Streeting has said he would not meet the 35 per cent pay hike asked for, saying that if he gave in to the demand then ‘any trade union worth their salt’ would come back the following year with the same request. 

He has also noted there is ‘space for a discussion’ on pay, as well as negotiations on how to improve working conditions for medics in training.

The wave of industrial action which has hit the NHS since December 2022 is believed to have cost the NHS more than £3 billion.

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

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

However, the uplift was higher for first year medics, who were given a 10.3 per cent boost.

Ministers insisted this was the final offer. But now-former health secretary Victoria Atkins offered medics an additional three per cent on top of this rise. 

The union said at the time this improved sum was still ‘completely insufficient’.

In April consultants in England accepted a Government offer, drawing a line under an industrial dispute that has dragged on for more than a year.