The impact on patients of strike

NHS England has published data following the latest and longest period of strike action.

Junior doctors and hospital dental trainees began strike action at 7am on Wednesday, January 3, until 7am on Tuesday, January 9, on the back of strike action just days prior to Christmas.

This latest period of strike action was the longest continuous period of junior doctor industrial action to date, and occurred at a time of year that is traditionallyverybusy.itresulted in 14,800 inpatient and outpatient appointments needing to be rescheduled in the South East.

A total of 14,529 junior doctors were absent from work, with the peak of action occurring on January 3.

Nationally, 25,446 staff were reported absent from work and 113,779 inpatient and outpatient appointments have been rescheduled.

Since the first period of industrial action in December 2022, the cumulative total of acute inpatient and outpatient appointments rescheduled in the South East is over 165,000. Nationally the total is over 1.3-million. Vaughan Lewis, medical director for NHS England in the South East, said: “The action has again come at an enormous cost which is clear from the figures released – likely to be even higher in reality – with more than 14,500 appointments postponed at a time when our services are already under huge pressure due to winter viruses cold weather, and the ongoing efforts of the NHS to recover from the backlogs of care that built up during the covid pandemic.

“I would like to thank everyone for their continued support in what remains a very challenging time for the NHS.”