Longest-ever NHS strike will sink Sunak’s waiting list pledge, say health chiefs

Junior doctors on the picket line outside University College Hospital in London on 20 December.
Photograph: James Manning/PA

One of Rishi Sunak’s key targets for the NHS – to eliminate waits of longer than 65 weeks for operations and other procedures by March – is likely to be missed because of strike action, health bosses warned this weekend.

The health service faces the longest national strike in its history when junior doctors in England walk out for six days from 7am on Wednesday. One NHS trust leader said he expected about a third of operations to be cancelled at his trust.