A London NHS Trust will cancel all non-urgent care during next week’s junior doctors’ strike as health bosses warned of a heightened risk to patient safety.
Whittington Health NHS Trust said it had made the "difficult decision" to reschedule all non-emergency procedures and outpatient appointments to ensure enough staff are available to provide emergency care.
The Trust runs the Whittington Hospital in Archway as well as community services across Haringey, Islington and Camden.
Around 60,000 junior doctors in the British Medical Association (BMA) will walk out for 96 hours from next Tuesday in a bitter pay dispute, with consultants stepping down to cover in emergency departments.
Dr Clare Dollery, Medical Director for the Trust, warned of “severe disruption to services” and said Londoners in need of non-urgent treatment should seek help at a pharmacy or NHS 111.
Meanwhile, St George’s, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals in south west London said the “double whammy” of strike action coinciding with the Easter bank holiday weekend would ramp up pressures on emergency care.
In a statement, the Trust said that nearly 500 patients had been turned away from its three A&E departments during the last three-day strike in March. More than 3,000 inpatient and outpatient appointments were rescheduled, with fears that next week’s action could lead to even greater disruption.
The walkout also coincides with the Easter school holidays, which means that many consultant staff who provided cover during the first round of strikes will be unable to do so again due to pre-planned holidays and childcare commitments.
The BMA is seeking a pay rise of 26 per cent for junior doctors to restore a real-terms fall in income since 2008. A Foundation Year 1 doctor earns around £29,000 per year, rising to £34,000 a year later.
Dr Latifa Patel, workforce lead for the British Medical Association (BMA), said the union had a “jointly agreed” system with NHS England in place to ensure patient safety in “extreme and unforeseen circumstances”.
Hospital leaders have expressed serious concerns about how they will be able to maintain patient safety during next week’s junior doctors’ strike.
NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said the timing of the strike and its duration present a “range of challenges over and above the disruption seen from the industrial action in recent months”.
It said that during the strike, the NHS will focus resources on emergency treatment, critical care, maternity, neonatal care and trauma.
But even in these areas, there are “real concerns of a raised risk to safety”, it said.
The strikes could also lead to delays for some patients starting treatment – for instance, if a new cancer patient needed to start weekly rounds of chemotherapy, the start of their treatment may be delayed until after the strike action to ensure continuity.
Last month’s 72-hour walk out led to about 175,000 hospital appointments and operations being postponed.
Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, said the NHS was in “uncharted territory” and urged the Government to urgently open talks with the BMA.
“Even now it’s not too late for the two sides in this dispute, the Government and the unions, to recognise the gravity of the situation and step back from the brink.
“We need a solution to prevent further strikes, and we need it now.”
Dr Latifa Patel, workforce lead for the British Medical Association, said patient care was at risk”every day due to chronic staff shortages and years of underinvestment in equipment and services”.
“We met with NHS England four times per day during the last strikes to monitor the situation, but there were no requests for a derogation – a temporary stoppage of the industrial action – to be made. The same proven arrangements will be in place this time.
“Junior doctors have no desire to strike, they been pushed into this action by long-term Government inaction and now want to bring this dispute to an end as quickly as possible.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Four days of strikes by junior doctors will risk patient safety and cause further disruption and postponed treatment.
“The BMA’s demand for a 35 per cent pay rise is totally unreasonable and unaffordable.”
