The Daily Telegraph

Junior doctors’ strike puts NHS on ‘thin ice’ in busiest week of year

- By Daily Telegraph Reporter

SIX days of strikes by junior doctors in England starting from Wednesday will leave the NHS on “thin ice” during the busiest week of the year, NHS leaders have warned.

The NHS Confederat­ion repeated its call for the walkouts to be cancelled and said that trust bosses should not be “forced into this position again”.

It said that the industrial action will leave hospitals, GP surgeries and other services “skating on very thin ice” and in a “highly vulnerable position” because it coincides with what is traditiona­lly the busiest week of year for the NHS. Flu and winter illnesses, combined with rising staff absences because of coronaviru­s, are set to add more pressure to services that will already be stretched by the strike.

The Government and the British Medical Associatio­n (BMA) union must resume talks to find a lasting compromise “for the sake of the patients”, the confederat­ion added.

Junior doctors are set to walk out from 7am on Wednesday until 7am on Jan 9. The strike amounts to 144 consecutiv­e hours of industrial action – the longest in the 75-year history of the health service.

The union wants junior doctors to get a 35 per cent pay rise, which it says would restore their real earnings to 2008 levels, but the Government says that this is unaffordab­le.

An agreement allows striking junior doctors to be recalled for major incidents and in extreme circumstan­ces.

The confederat­ion is urging the BMA to respond quickly to requests for junior doctors to be recalled and for the judgement of senior medics to be “trusted” when they say they need cover from those on strike.

Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederat­ion, said: “Many NHS trusts will have thin rotas and will be in a highly vulnerable position as they enter what is widely regarded as the busiest week of the year for local NHS services. Parts of the NHS will be

skating on very thin ice, and they will need the BMA to back any recall requests for junior doctors when services find themselves under extreme pressure. With the chances of the strikes being called off all but over, the focus of every NHS leader and their staff is now on mitigating as many of the considerab­le risks that they face as possible.

“But they shouldn’t have to be forced into this position again, especially at such a busy time for local services.

“To face almost 150 hours of continuous stoppages is a serious and unpreceden­ted risk – and one that NHS leaders and their staff have never experience­d before. The good news is that the NHS has again prepared extensivel­y and has had to become adept at planning for strikes. While they will again do all they can to mitigate the risks, especially for patients needing emergency care, they have again been left with no choice but to schedule in less activity in anticipati­on of the strikes. That means more delays for patients who have faced lengthy waits for routine treatment.”

Figures released last month showed more than 1.2 million appointmen­ts have had to be postponed because of industrial action in the NHS since it began in December 2022. Strikes by junior doctors last month caused about 86,000 appointmen­ts to be put back.

It comes after flu admissions more than doubled amid a surge in winter viruses last week. Almost 1,000 people spent Christmas in hospital with flu, figures suggest, as 972 patients were being treated on Christmas Eve, including 66 in critical care. Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS medical director, said the service was contending with a “storm of pressure” which would be compounded by the upcoming junior doctors’ strike.

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