The NHS faces its toughest junior doctors’ strike- to date in the new year with healthcare leaders fearful for patients’ safety.
Junior doctors will stage a six-day walkout from the morning of 3 January to 9 January, during what is traditionally the most challenging week of the year for the NHS. It is the longest strike in NHS history and comes off the back of a 72-hour action before Christmas.
During doctors’ action last week, hospitals across the country warned patients over extreme pressures and long waiting times in A&E, with at least one hospital emergency department having to close its doors.
Last year the NHS recorded its worst ever A&E waiting times and ambulance delays in the first two weeks of January.
Health secretary Victoria Atkins says some doctors would be deeply uncomfortable by the timing of the strikes— (BBC Breakfast)
On Sunday NHS England chairman Richard Meddings told the Sunday Times: “It just can’t continue like this. The pressure on the NHS in normal times is significant, and we’re doing a lot about that.
“But in winter it’s particularly acute, and that’s why I’m fearful. Winter is really difficult and actually I am fearful of the consequences for patients.”
It comes after NHS Confederation chief executive Matthew Taylor urged the Government and the British Medical Association (BMA) not to allow a stubborn sense of pride to get in the way of efforts to avert a potentially dangerous walkout.
He said the NHS had coped during the three-day strike which ended on Saturday morning but some patients, who would otherwise have gone home to spend Christmas with families, had not been able to be discharged.
Junior doctors in England are preparing for the longest strike in NHS history from January 3— (PA Wire)
January’s strike would be a different matter, he said, adding: “Six days of strike action following a bank holiday at a time of enormous pressure, there are real issues around patient safety and we don’t have in place national derogations, which we have had for other strikes.
“So yes, there will be an impact on the backlog, but I also have real concerns about patient safety over these days.”
Industrial action in December and January was announced after weeks of talks between unions and ministers broke down.
Junior doctors were offered a 3 per cent rise on top of the average 8.8 per cent increase they were given in the summer.
On Thursday health secretary Victoria Atkins suggested “many, many doctors” would be feeling “deeply uncomfortable” about the timing of strikes and questioned whether the BMA’s junior doctors’ committee was representing the views of medics.
Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, the co-chairmen of the BMA’s junior doctors’ committee, said the comments were “disappointing” after what they had thought was “an improved tone and approach from Ms Atkins”.
“We did not walk away from negotiations and we are happy to talk to Ms Atkins at any time,” their statement said. “It is the Government’s insistence that they will not talk while strikes are scheduled that is blocking progress and wasting unnecessary time.
“We appeal directly to Ms Atkins and the Government to drop this precondition and get back around the table.”
Junior doctors in Wales are planning a 72-hour walkout from January 15 while doctors in training in Northern Ireland are being balloted for strike action. Doctors in Scotland have come to an agreement with the Holyrood government.
