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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Denis Campbell Health policy editor

NHS leaders believe 2m operations and appointments lost to strikes

Protesters at a rally demonstrate for pay rises for junior doctors with placards that read ‘£14 an hour is not a fair wage for a junior doctor’
NHS leaders say many hospitals are now avoiding booking patients on strike days to save having to cancel them. Photograph: Guy Smallman/Getty Images

As many as 2m outpatient appointments and operations have been cancelled as a result of NHS strikes – double the official total – hospital bosses believe.

The NHS Confederation said the true number of care sessions hospitals are not able to provide due to staff walkouts is far higher than the NHS’s 1m figure because so many hospitals now do not book any patients in on strike days, to save having to reschedule them.

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