The leadership of Britain’s NHS has warned of “significant disruption” as junior doctors in England prepare for a five-day strike starting Thursday amid a heatwave sweeping much of the country.
The health department said the strike would affect “almost all routine care,” with specialists being asked to cover for their junior doctors, who make up about half of the medical staff.
Junior doctors affiliated to the British Medical Association will strike from 7am on June 27 to 7am on July 2 to demand a 35 per cent pay rise, two days before the general election.
The new strike followed a five-day work stoppage in February and came after the British health authority Health Security Agency issued a yellow heat warning for most of England.
Yellow is the second highest of four alert levels. According to the Met Office, the national weather service, it indicates periods of heat that may affect people who are “particularly vulnerable… and are likely to find it difficult to cope, and where action is required, particularly in the health and social care sector”.
Tuesday was the hottest day of the year so far in Great Britain. According to the Met Office, maximum temperatures of 30 degrees were recorded in Chertsey, Surrey. For Wednesday, the agency is forecasting “hot sunshine across England and Wales”.
The wave of industrial action by staff that began in December 2022 has added to the pressure on the NHS, with around 1.5 million operations and appointments cancelled since the measures began.
A new round of talks between junior doctors and the government began this month before Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a general election on July 4 to end a dispute that has already seen 10 junior doctors strikes in the past two years.
A statement from NHS England said on Wednesday: “The NHS will face significant disruption this week as junior doctors launch a five-day industrial action and services are already coming under increasing pressure.”
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, National Medical Director of the NHS, said Thursday’s work stoppage would “again hit the NHS very hard. Almost all routine care would probably be affected and services would come under significant pressure.”
Philip Banfield, chairman of the BMA board, said the junior doctors’ strikes had not resulted in “doctors leaving the hospital”.
“If you have to go to the emergency room because of the heat during a heatwave warning, you will be treated the same as on any normal day,” he added.
The latest strike will also increase pressure on the Labour Party, if it wins the election, to resolve the dispute with the doctors and prevent future work stoppages.
Public sector pay disputes would be considered one of the most pressing problems if the main opposition party came to power, according to a dossier by Labour chief of staff Sue Gray.
After five weeks of negotiations late last year, the BMA rejected the Government’s offer to give junior doctors a three per cent pay rise on top of the around nine per cent pay rise already on offer. The union said the proposal was not “credible” and did not address 15 years of inflation-related pay cuts.
Wes Streeting, Labour’s shadow health secretary, warned junior doctors that the party would not be able to meet their demand for a 35 per cent pay rise immediately after the election, but said he was “ready to sit down and negotiate”.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said that while the organisation representing health managers “fully understands the legitimate complaints of junior doctors… NHS leaders will nonetheless be frustrated at having to take to the picket lines again”.
“Going on strike in the middle of an election campaign, when no political party is able to end the conflict, is a bitter pill to swallow for the staff who have to fill the gaps and for the patients whose appointments have to be cancelled or postponed,” he added.
