Doctors' strike 'will hit drive to reduce NHS waiting lists'

Progress on clearing the NHS backlog is “under threat” after junior doctors launched a 72-hour strike, health chiefs said.

- Hanna Geissler

Tens of thousands are thought to have joined picket lines across the country on Monday in the latest bitter wave of NHS industrial action over pay.

The walk-out was expected to be the most disruptive yet and lead to thousands more cancellations for those awaiting care.

Around 140,000 appointments and procedures have already been delayed during months of strikes by nurses, ambulance staff and physiotherapists.

Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, said the 60,000 members of the British Medical Association (BMA) who were eligible to strike made up almost half the medical workforce.

Delayed

He said: “Their work will need to be covered by largely consultants, associate specialists, staff grades and other staff, which in turn means significant disruption to patients who are waiting for operations appointments, outpatient services, and so on.

“We’re at a point where the NHS is driving towards reducing that backlog of patients needing operations, aiming to achieve no one waiting longer than 78 weeks by April.

“That is obviously under threat given the scale of this action and the fact that already as a consequence of industrial action...we’ve seen around 140,000, procedures, appointments and so on disrupted.”

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS England’s medical director, admitted that even cancer care may be disrupted.