NHS staff cancel holiday to cover for striking doctors as patients left anxious and fed-up

LOYAL health staff have given up their summer holiday in a bid to pick up the pieces for fearful patients left by striking doctors, their bosses said yesterday.

- By Giles Sheldrick Chief Reporter

In a blistering intervention as public sympathy for the resident doctors' pay dispute evaporates, NHS chiefs said those left to cope represented the very best of us.

The five-day walkout as the British Medical Association union demands a pay rise of almost 29% is the 12th round of industrial action since 2023.

The doctors want full pay restoration to pre-2008 levels.

Their 2023 action led to a 22% salary rise to cover 2023-24 and 2024-25. Ministers are currently offering them 5.4% for 2025-26.

NHS national medical director Professor Meghana Pandit said: “Patients will be rightly anxious and fed-up at the thought of more cancellations [as] significant delays can lead to harm.

“Some staff have cancelled planned leave and instead of spending time with their children at the start of the school holidays, are working round the clock to limit the disruption.”

No official figures on the effect of the latest strike, which started on Friday, have been released. But some trusts said more than 80% of their non-urgent or elective work had been carried out by staff working “flat out to protect people from harm by keeping vital services going”.