Doctors to strike after rejecting last-ditch offer

Hospitals are cancelling tens of thousands of appointments and operations after resident doctors voted overwhelmingly to reject a last-ditch offer to avoid this week's strike.

- Denis Campbell Health policy editor

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, and the British Medical Association (BMA) are being urged to see if an independent mediator can break the deadlock in the almost three-year-old pay and jobs dispute in England.

NHS bosses are anxious about hospital services' capacity to cope with what will be the 14th stoppage by resident - formerly junior - doctors since March 2023 when it is already struggling to cope with a fast-growing “flu-nami”. An estimated 38,500 outpatient appointments and treatments, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy for cancer, have had to be rescheduled.

Bosses also fear that consultant (senior) doctors will be too busy covering the work of their colleagues during the strike to help hospitals undertake their usual pre-Christmas clearout of patients who are well enough to leave, so they can free up their beds in readiness for the cold snap that tends to cause problems during the festive season.

The Patients Association called for third-party arbitration after resident doctors voted by five to one -83% to 17%-against a deal the BMA called "too little, too late". They had voted in a survey of opinion about an offer that, if accepted, would have led to the union calling off the fiveday walkout, which will now start as planned at 7am tomorrow.

Arbitration could break the "endless cycle of disruption, cancellations and anxiety" that has existed since the dispute began in March 2023, said the association's chief executive, Rachel Power.