The country's top doctor has warned the coming week will see the 'biggest strike disruption to date' as junior doctors stage a sweeping walkout.
Emergency, urgent and critical care will be prioritised, says the NHS, as strike action by junior doctors across England will see 'major disruption of services'. 'Thousands of patients' will face postponements to routine care, including appointments and operations, health service bosses are announcing.
Industrial action by junior doctors part of the British Medical Associations and the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association is set to begin on Monday (13 March) at all NHS trusts in England for 72 hours – the longest continuous period of strike action in recent months. Some 64,000 junior doctors will be going on strike, making up half of the medical workforce, as the term covers everyone who has just graduated from medical school to those with many years' experience on the front line.
READ MORE: 'Many appointments and procedures postponed' as every hospital in Greater Manchester to be hit by doctors strikes
In NHS strikes earlier this year including those by the Royal College of Nursing, national derogations have been agreed ahead of the strike, meaning certain services such as intensive care or cancer clinics have been exempt from industrial action and remained working. However, this time, there are no derogations.
NHS bosses say they expect to see some of the most severe strike disruption of NHS services to date, having a huge impact on the drive to reduce waiting lists for elective care. Junior doctors are asking for a pay increase to make up for 15 years of inflation, along with better working conditions which they say is driving people to leave the NHS, leading to dangerous short staffing and unsafe patient care.
The NHS says it will contact anyone who will need to reschedule appointments so if you have not been contacted then you should attend as usual. However as the scope of action has escalated, this has increased pressure on a service recovering from one of the most challenging winters on record.
"During this time, the NHS will prioritise resources to protect emergency and critical care, maternity care and where possible prioritise patients who have waited the longest for elective care and cancer surgery," said a spokesperson for the NHS. "To make sure safe care continues to be available for those in life-threatening situations, NHS staff will be asked to prioritise emergency and urgent care over some routine appointments and procedures – but these will only be cancelled where unavoidable and patients will be offered an alternative date as soon as possible."
Patients should still come forward for the care they need and attend any planned appointments unless contacted to reschedule, says the NHS, but the service's top doctor urged the public to use 999 and A&E for life-threatening emergencies only during the planned industrial action and to make use of NHS 111 online and other services for non-urgent needs.
NHS Medical Director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said: “The NHS has been working incredibly hard to mitigate the impact of this strike. While we are doing what we can to avoid having to reschedule appointments, there’s no doubt that disruption will be much more severe than before and patients who have been waiting for some time will face postponements across many treatment areas. Where there are postponements, we’ll be trying to re-book as quickly as possible.
"However it is vital to attend planned appointments unless told otherwise. We have no option but to prioritise emergency and critical care as a matter of patient safety, and we’re asking the public to help us and use 111 online as well as local services like general practice and pharmacies as first points of call, but people should of course always use 999 in a life-threatening emergency.”
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