The NHS is facing another period of significant disruption this
week, with potentially thousands more appointments and procedures
postponed due to the latest round of industrial action by junior
doctors.
From 7am on Friday 11 August until 7am on Monday 14 August,
junior doctors across England will be on strike, as the NHS
enters the ninth month of industrial action across its services.
This is the fifth strike from junior doctors, meaning services
have seen over 450 hours without a third of the medical workforce
over the last five months - the equivalent of 19 full days.
Following a recent ruling by the High Court, employers can no
longer use agency staff to fill in for striking workers during
industrial action, which means some of the cover arrangements
used during previous strikes will not be possible. However, the
ruling does not apply to a hospital’s own ‘bank’ staff, and NHS
Employers has provided guidance to trusts on this issue.
To date, around 778,000 hospital appointments across the NHS have
been disrupted due to strikes, with over 458,000 staff shifts
interrupted. Previous action by junior doctors saw up to 20,000
staff off per day due to industrial action and the most recent
industrial action by junior doctors in July saw 102,000 hospital
appointments disrupted over five days.
The NHS will continue to prioritise emergency care during
industrial action – the public should continue to use 999 in life
threatening emergencies and NHS 111 online for other health
concerns.
NHS national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said:
“This latest round of junior doctors strikes will again
significantly disrupt services for patients and the additional
challenge this time is that organisations are unable to use
agency workers to cover staff out on strike. It is also a period
of time where NHS staff often take annual leave, so there are
already gaps in the workforce.
“We will continue to prioritise emergency care, but it inevitably
means that many thousands of appointments will need to be
postponed.
Please continue to use 999 if it is a life-threatening emergency
and 111 online for anything non-urgent. GPs and pharmacies are
also open and largely unaffected by strikes. If you have an
appointment and haven’t been told it’s been postponed, it’s also
vital you turn up as normal.
“While NHS staff are doing all they can to manage, there is no
doubt that the cumulative impact of strikes increases with each
action, as the NHS continues to tackle the biggest backlog in its
history.”
