Key Summary
- NHS says care will continue during the five-day resident doctors’ strike
- Patients should attend appointments unless told otherwise; use 111 or 999 as needed
- Government blames the BMA for rejecting its offer and causing further disruption
With resident doctors commencing their five-day strike action from Friday (14), the NHS has urged the patients to come forward and hospital chiefs have been told to keep routine operations going as much as possible.
This is the 13th strike by the resident doctors since March 2023, with 54 days of disrupted NHS service.
Hospital teams are working round the clock to ensure disruption is minimised, and appointments are being rescheduled only in unavoidable circumstances.
“The public should continue to come forward for their appointments over the next few days unless they are contacted by the NHS and told otherwise,” urged Professor Meghana Pandit, NHS England National Medical director.
She added, “Inevitably some appointments won’t be able to go ahead as planned but we are doing everything possible to keep this to a minimum – and the last round of industrial action showed that, thanks to a strong collective effort, we were able to keep the vast majority of services going for patients.”
However, NHS bosses are concerned that the strike comes at an already challenging time amid an early spike in flu cases.
During the last round of strikes in July, the NHS had maintained routine operations, and this had resulted in over 10,000 extra patients receive their care, compared with the previous 5 days of industrial action in summer 2024.
The NHS maintained the vast majority of operations, tests and procedures despite the disruption, as well as dealing with urgent and emergency cases.
NHS ensures primary as well as emergency services during the strike days.
NHS urges the public contact 111 online for non-life threatening issues.
On the other hand, they can contact 999 or walk into A&E care for emergency support.
People are also advised not to miss their appointments unless they are informed of a reschedule.
Health secretary Wes Streeting denounced the strike action and reassured the public that the NHS is resilient to the hurdles.
He pointed out that, “During the last round, we reduced cancellations by 11,000 compared to previous strikes and limited costs by millions. The NHS is aiming to keep 95 per cent of planned care going to reduce the impact on patients.”
“But there is no doubt that strikes will cause some disruption for patients and the NHS staff left picking up the pieces. “
Streeting stated, “The fault for that lies squarely with the British Medical Association (BMA), who refused to put the government’s offer to its members.
“The BMA could have secured more jobs and cut professional costs for resident doctors on top of the 28.9 per cent pay rise they have already had thanks to this government, but they rejected it out of hand,” after expressing his gratitude towards the toiling NHS staff.
He urged the resident doctors to help the needy patients rather than following the BMA.
He emphasised on the need to rebuild NHS to its full potential as well.
