You won’t believe what’s causing ‘significant’ NHS disruption in England – young doctors on strike!

A senior NHS executive has warned patients will face ‘significant disruption’ and thousands of canceled appointments as young doctors in England prepare to go out for 72 hours in their protracted battle for pay.

The British Medical Association has warned that doctors below consultant grade go on strike for a minimum of three days every month throughout the summer if the government doesn’t improve its offer of a 5% pay rise. Doctors will begin industrial action at 7am on Wednesday, their third strike since March.

But ministers accused the union of refusing to abandon its call for a 35% raise, which junior doctors say is needed to offset 15 years of wage erosion.

THE SSN faced a wave of strike since December with nurses, ambulance workers and young doctors gone.

The advisers are now voting on whether to take their own industrial action with a result due soon after the vote closes on June 27. it was accepted by the majority of health unions and has now been implemented by the government.

Sir Stephen Powis, national medical director of the NHS, told the Financial Times the strike would impact “patients and services across the country”. The Health Service will continue to prioritize emergency, critical and neonatal care, as well as maternity and trauma services. But that meant thousands of appointments would have to be postponed again, he added.

To the extent possible, staff will “prioritize those who have waited the longest for elective care and cancer surgery,” rescheduling patients whose treatment has been canceled “as soon as there is space and staff to do it,” he added.

On the front lines, health leaders have doubled down on their calls for both sides to find a way to resolve their differences.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation which represents healthcare organizations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said both sides ‘need to give some ground if there was to be any hope of a resolution, and the NHS has really need to see one soon”.

Delays in planned “elective” care were what worried executives the most, Taylor said, “with patients potentially developing complications or having their conditions worsen as a result.” It also meant that the wait list, currently at 7.4 million, was likely growing and taking longer to clear, he added.

Rishi Sunak, the British prime minister, has made reducing waiting lists for treatment one of the criteria by which he expects his government to be judged when voters go to the polls, probably next year. That task has been complicated by the cancellation of more than an estimated 500,000 operations and appointments since the health service strikes began in December.

Taylor highlighted the rising tensions within the health service caused by the strike action. “We have seen signs that more and more consultants are becoming reluctant to continue providing cover unless they are paid the BMA rate schedule for overtime, which will impact local budgets,” she said.

Vivek Trivedi and Robert Laurenson, co-chairs of the BMA’s junior doctors’ committee, said they had made it clear from the outset that talks with the government required “an acknowledgment of the scale of our pay cuts over the past 15 years”. Their door was always open for talks “but the approach has to be credible for them to be productive,” they added.

An ally of health and social care secretary Steve Barclay said he wanted constructive talks, but young doctors should first call off their strike action and show a willingness to drop their demand for “unsustainable” pay.