BMA lets one junior doctor cross picket line as hospitals plead for help

A SINGLE striking doctor has been allowed to cross the picket line after around 30 requests by NHS medical directors were turned down.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said it had allowed one junior doctor to work in neonatal care for a single shift yesterday, after University Hospital Lewisham put in a second request pleading for help.

Under strike protocols, hospital trusts can ask unions to allow doctors to return to work and cover shifts if patient safety is compromised.

However, all other known requests have so far been rejected by the BMA.

Health authorities were also privately bracing for an increase in vulnerable patients arriving at hospitals this weekend, with cold weather alerts across England and temperatures set to plummet below zero in parts of the country.

A surge in winter viruses ahead of the strikes resulted in more than 5,000 patients in hospital with Covid or flu at the start of the week, according to NHS data published today.

“We have granted a derogation for one junior doctor for the neonatal unit at University Hospital Lewisham for the day shift on 5 January,” the BMA said.

“The trust informed us that alternative sources of staffing have been exhausted. Our priority is patient safety.”

A spokesman for the south-east London trust said they would “do what is necessary to keep our hospitals safe” and were “pleased this had been recognised”.

But every other request to the union to allow junior doctors to return to work has been refused, with some hospitals having more than one plea turned down.

Senior NHS sources said around 30 requests have now been submitted as pressures mount.

Great Western Hospitals Foundation trust – which declared an “internal inci- dent” even before strikes were under way – was among the trusts making pleas for junior doctors to be allowed to cross the picket line.

The trust, in Swindon, Wiltshire, requested that junior doctors be allowed to work in surgery and in its outpatients’ appointments departments, in order to deal with the most urgent cases. Both were rejected.

A spokesman said the trust was focussing all efforts on generating bed capacity and maintaining safe staffing amid “extremely high demand for services”.

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation trust in London is also understood to be among those to have had requests rejected.

Other hospitals have issued pleas for the public to help “free up beds” by collecting relatives that can go home.

South Warwickshire NHS Trust and Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust, were among those asking for relatives to take loved ones home, and were among the four hospitals in England that were at full capacity ahead of the strikes.

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, which declared a critical incident yesterday afternoon, urged the public to only seek help with a “life-threatening emergency”.