Junior Doctors' strike will block 600 operations, warn NHS chiefs

Junior doctors are planning to go on strike tomorrow for 24 hours
Dominic Lipinski/PA
Ross Lydall @RossLydall9 February 2016

The junior doctors’ strike tomorrow will result in more than 600 operations being cancelled in London hospitals, NHS chiefs predicted.

This would mean the 24-hour walk-out, starting at 8am but excluding doctors in emergency care, would have a greater impact than the first strike last month, when 522 planned procedures were cancelled or postponed.

Across England, 2,884 operations have been cancelled as a result of the British Medical Association action. Barts Health is one of many London trusts where only urgent and emergency care will be provided, with services “similar to a Christmas Day”.

Dr Anne Rainsberry, national incident director for NHS England, said: “The NHS is doing everything possible to minimise the impact of this regrettable strike which will delay care for thousands of patients at a time of year when service pressures across the health service are already at their highest.”

Reports today claimed Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt vetoed a compromise deal on pay for junior doctors working evenings and Saturdays that could have ended the dispute. The proposal would have reduced premium pay for Saturdays but prevented them being designated as a normal working day. The Department of Health denied Mr Hunt had prevented a breakthrough.

Dr Lauren Gavaghan, 35, a psychiatrist working in hospitals in south-east London, said she expected a “strong” turnout from junior doctors tomorrow. She said: “We cannot let this current contract go through — it’s just not safe.

“It’s terrible that people are going to have to wait for operations but, as doctors, we have to weigh up whether something that in the short term is going to inconvenience our patients is going to prevent years and years of unsafe practice.

“Saturdays are important. We feel strongly as a body that we should have time with our families. A doctor’s life is extraordinarily busy and extraordinarily stressful. I see people in A&E who have been raped. I see people whose daughters have committed suicide. This isn’t the type of stress-free work where a break doesn’t matter.”

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