STRIKING DOCTORS’ LEGACY OF MISERY
20,000 patients hit by cancellations and backlog will take months to clear
PATIENTS face months in limbo after the biggest doctors’ strike in 40 years.
More than 20,000 operations and appointments had to be cancelled yesterday – many without being rebooked.
Patients missed out on everything from hip replacements to tests for life- threatening illnesses. They now face waiting weeks, or even months, because hospital lists are so full.
As Jeremy Hunt appealed to doctors to return to negotiations to avert two further planned strikes, it emerged that:
Patients told doctors they should be ashamed of striking;
Some were informed by text of vital scans being cancelled;
Hospital managers begged GPs to fill in for striking medics, with no success;
Up to 40 per cent of hospital doctors worked as normal;
Labour MPs joined medics on the picket lines.
Yesterday’s strike centres on the opposition of England’s 55,000 junior doctors to Government changes to their contracts.
Mr Hunt wants them to do more shifts at weekends and overnight when care is significantly worse
due to staff shortages. But junior doctors fear the Health Secretary’s plans will cut their salaries and force them to work longer hours, putting patients at risk.
Yesterday’s action – when only emergency care was offered – is the first of three walkouts that will cause chaos for hospitals struggling to cope with winter illnesses. Nearly 4,000 operations and 17,500 outpatient appointments were cancelled.
Another 48-hour strike is planned for January 26 followed by a total withdrawal of care on February 10, the first in the 67year history of the NHS.
Talks between the doctors’ union, the British Medical Association, and the Government are due to resume this week – leaving little time to reach a deal.
Katherine Murphy of the Patients Association said the sick were the victims of the stand-off. ‘The problem is, when their operations are cancelled they aren’t given a new date,’ she added.
‘This causes uncertainty and distress.