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11-07-2025
LONDON: Resident doctor strikes could cause more than 200,000 hospital appointments to be cancelled this month.
The medics, formerly called junior doctors, will stage a full five-day walkout beginning at 7am on July 25 to demand a 29 per cent pay rise.
Junior doctors caused 201,000 appointments to be cancelled in April 2023 when they staged their first five-day walkout, and a similar number could be affected this time.
The true figure is likely to be higher given NHS leaders will have just two weeks’ notice to prepare for the walkout and some appointments will no longer be scheduled for those days.
NHS hospitals deliver around 300,000 outpatient appointments every day in addition to those receiving inpatient and emergency care.
Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, said the British Medical Association (BMA) was leaving the “NHS recovery hanging by a thread” and called it “completely unreasonable” to announce strikes after receiving a 28.9 per cent pay rise in the last three years.
“No trade union in British history has seen its members receive a 28.9% pay rise only to immediately respond with strikes, and the majority of BMA resident doctors didn’t vote to strike,” he said.
“This is completely unreasonable. The NHS recovery is hanging by a thread, and the BMA are threatening to pull it. The BMA should abandon their rush to strike and work with us to improve resident doctors’ working lives instead.”
NHS leaders hit out at the BMA for giving hospitals just two weeks’ notice as “totally unfair to patients” and “showing a lack of respect for colleagues”.
The strikes threaten to sabotage the Government’s 10-year health plan, which was unveiled last week by Sir Keir Starmer and sets out ambitions to transform the NHS into a digital and community-based service with easy access to GPs and dentists.
Government pledges jeopardized
More strikes also jeopardize the Government’s pledges to cut the 7.4 million backlog and meet the 18-week target for a hospital appointment after referral by 2029.
Daniel Elkeles, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospital leaders, said; “announcing five days of strike action with just two weeks’ notice can only be harmful. “It’s totally unfair to patients whose care will be cancelled at such short notice just as the NHS was beginning to turn the tide on reducing waiting lists”.
“It shows a lack of respect for colleagues from many other disciplines who received lower pay rises and will now have to cover resident doctors’ work.”
The resident doctors agreed a 22.3 per cent pay rise last year to end strikes and were awarded 5.4 per cent on average this year, a larger salary increase than any other public sector worker for the second year running but they want this figure increased to 29 per cent to return them to “real terms” pay levels seen in 2008.
Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt, the committee’s co-leaders, said they had “made every attempt to avoid strike action by opening negotiations for pay restoration”.
They said; “unfortunately, the Government has stated that it will not negotiate on pay, wanting to focus on non-pay elements without suggesting what these might be. Without a credible offer to keep us on the path to restore our pay, we have no choice but to call strikes. “No doctor wants to strike and these strikes don’t have to go ahead. If Mr Streeting can seriously come to the table in the next two weeks, we can ensure that no disruption is caused. The Government knows what is needed to avert strikes. The choice is theirs.” (Int’l News Desk)
