Junior doctor strike leads to 196,000 cancellations

Latest figures show that over 196,000 hospital appointments were cancelled because of the junior doctor strike in England last week, the greatest number so far in the NHS pay dispute.

The figures include patients waiting for operations and other treatments, as well as scans and follow-up appointments.

However, the true scale of the disruption is likely to be higher as many hospitals had cut back ahead of the strike to minimise last-minute postponements.

Some hospitals reported they were not carrying out up to fifty per cent of their planned work so consultants could be redeployed to emergency care to cover for striking junior doctors.

This brings the total number of appointments affected by all the strikes over the last five months to over 500,000 – nurses, ambulance staff and physiotherapists have been involved in industrial action as well as junior doctors.

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, national medical director for the NHS, said “Today’s figures lay bare the colossal impact of industrial action on planned care in the NHS.

“Each of the appointments postponed has an impact on the lives of individuals and their families and creates further pressure on services and on a tired workforce – and this is likely to be an underestimate of the impact as some areas provisionally avoided scheduling appointments for these strike days.

“Our staff now have an immense amount of work to catch up on.”

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (jacquelinevance@chadlaw.co.uk), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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