A London NHS trust on Thursday issued an urgent plea for patients to attend appointments during the junior doctors’ strikes amid fears that they were not coming forward for care.
St George’s, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust said that more than 1,200 patients in the south-west London area had not attended appointments during the last walkout in March.
The warning came as more than 47,000 members of the British Medical Association began a third day of strike action over pay. The strike, which is the most disruptive in NHS history, will last until Saturday morning.
Dr Richard Jennings, group chief medical officer for St George’s, Epsom and St Helier, said: “We have had to reschedule some appointments to ensure we prioritise care for those who most need it — but you will be contacted if this is the case. That means if you have an appointment and you haven’t heard from us you should still come in.”
Londoners have been warned not to attend A&E unless they have a life-threatening condition to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed. More than 50,000 operations and procedures are expected to be cancelled in the capital as a result of the strike.
At Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, patients attending A&E without an urgent need to be seen were warned yesterday of a 12-hour wait.
Meanwhile, the BMA said it had held talks with Acas in a bid to break the deadlock and urged the Government to engage with the independent conciliation service. BMA council chair Professor Philip Banfield said: “In the face of a constant refusal from Health Secretary Steve Barclay to agree to further talks and put forward a credible offer which could bring an end to the dispute, we believe that working with Acas provides the most realistic chance of a successful outcome to the negotiations.
“We have always said we will get round the table for talks with Mr Barclay at any time; a credible offer from him could result in strike action being called off, but despite months of trying, he remains seemingly intransigent and inflexible to all our attempts to reach a settlement.”
But last night Mr Barclay dismissed the call for talks, saying the BMA would need to drop its “unreasonable” demand for a 35 per cent pay rise. “If the BMA move significantly on this and cancels strikes we can resume talks,” he added.
On Thursday morning minister Chris Philp also suggested junior doctors needed to suspend all strikes if the Government was to agree to Acas talks. He was asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Why not just say yes, in a strike where lives are at stake... yes to Acas? It’s not something that involves you having to agree to anything. It’s a process.”
Mr Philp replied: “Well, that’s a very recent change in position. I think it would also be constructive if they would suspend the strikes while talks take place.”
