Strike will impact 60,000 appointments, NHS says

Approximately 60,000 appointments across London will be impacted by a five-day doctors’ strike starting on Friday, the medical director for NHS London has said.

The British Medical Association (BMA) strike follows a pay dispute with the government over resident doctors – the new name for junior doctors.

NHS London said cancer and heart surgeries were being prioritised, however care which was not life saving was being “put on the back burner”, a move which was “causing distress” and “some harm as well”.

The BMA said resident doctors had not had a “credible” pay deal for 2025-26, but Health Secretary Wes Streeting argued the strike was “unreasonable” after substantial pay rises in recent years.

‘Cumulative effect’

Dr Chris Streather, medical director for NHS London, hospitals had “quite a lot of practice” with managing care during industrial action.

“We will do as much as we can,” he said. “But some things will get cancelled inevitably.”

He added: “The more worrying thing this time around is the cumulative effect of repeated cancellations of planned care.

“Since 2022 when this all started, we’ve cancelled nearly 1.5m planned appointments, and every time this happens, we loose about another 60,000.

“Although we make emergency care safe, we can’t really deal with that backlog in planned care.”

The five-day walkout, which will take place across England, comes after a period of greater demand at St George’s, Epsom and St Helier hospitals.

Between 1 June and 14 July this year, approximately 800 more people attended the hospitals’ emergency departments compared with the same period last year, the group said.

Many of those were admitted to hospital with issues including respiratory problems, shortness of breath, chest pain and falls.

Dr Jane Evans, consultant at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, said the hospital would have to “try and achieve balance” by managing emergency care and planned appointments during the strike.

“It’s a square peg, round hole situation. We try to do everything, but it’s impossible.”

The BMA said wages were still around 20% lower in real terms than in 2008 and called for “pay restoration”.

Streeting has made clear there would be no extra pay this year.

Dr Melissa Reddy, co-chair of the BMA resident doctors committee, said: “Our door is always open for Mr Streeting to come forth with an offer.

“None of us want to go out on strike. I’m a paediatric doctor, I work with children and families and I’d much rather be at work, but we simply need Mr Streeting to act and present us with a credible offer.”

Dr Streather said the strike would have more of an impact in the capital, where approximately half of doctors were resident doctors.

“I and other people are disappointed that resident doctors are striking,” he said.

“The public finances are in a mess and we’ve got a backlog of patients to deal with, and there isn’t money to increase their pay.

“This can’t be about pay… but there’s lots of other stuff we can do to improve their working lives and I think we need to take that seriously.”

The NHS urged people to use its 111 online service, visit a pharmacy for advice or contact their GP where possible. Anyone in need of emergency care should continue to use A&E departments.

The strikes take place from 07:00 on Friday until 07:00 on Wednesday.