Junior doctors strike at hospitals across North East

Hospital bosses said the strike will be “incredibly tough” for the health service as junior doctors in England launched a six-day walkout.

It comes as junior doctors have said strike action is the "only thing" the Government listens to.

Junior doctors have taken to picket lines across the country, including outside the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle

One leader expressed frustration that the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Government have not been able to reach an agreement for “months and months”.

Both sides were locked in talks for five weeks last year in a bid to try and break the deadlock.

But strikes were called after talks broke down.

Medics insisted that Health Secretary Victoria Atkins had “pushed” them out of the negotiation room.

Junior doctors on the picket line at Newcastle's RVI adopt the lyrics of Dolly Parton. (Image: PA)

Speaking from a picket line outside St Thomas’ Hospital in London, Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chair of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, said there was “no good time to strike”, but added that “we need to recognise that we have a massive workforce crisis”.

He told the PA news agency the strikes were necessary because they are “the only thing that the Government understands with regards to being able to work with a workforce”.

Nick Hulme, chief executive of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said “patients are paying the price” as the dispute rumbles on.

But doctors insisted they are “not hellbent on strikes” and they hoped the Government would resume talks swiftly.

The industrial action, from 7am on Wednesday January 3 to 7am on Tuesday January 9, comes at one of the busiest times of the year for the NHS as it grapples with increased pressure from winter viruses and a rise in people coming forward who delayed seeking help over the holidays.

The NHS has warned that the strike, which could see up to half of the medical workforce in England walk out, could lead to “the most difficult start to the year the NHS has ever faced”.

It said emergency and urgent care will be prioritised during the strikes and almost all routine care will be affected.

Patients are being urged to still come forward to seek care if they need it.

Age UK warned that the threat of strikes could deter elderly people from seeking care.

The charity also said it will be “difficult to guarantee safe and effective care for everyone who needs it”.

Dr Layla McCay, director of policy at the NHS Confederation, told LBC Radio: “In order to maintain patient safety as much as possible, get people the care they need as quickly as possible, all the resources available will be concentrated in the most urgent and emergency care. And that means that that lots of other care will need to be postponed.

“Plans have been put in place and people have been working very, very hard on these rotas. But the rotas are just about covered, so it only takes a consultant or two to go off sick – which, of course, there’s a lot of Covid and flu, norovirus, other winter viruses around at the moment and a couple may go off sick – then that is going to put the entire plan in jeopardy, which is why the leaders across the NHS are so concerned that this is skating on thin ice.”

Junior doctors and members of the British Medical Association (BMA) outside Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, as they take to picket lines for six days during their continuing dispute over pay.. (Image: PA)

Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, said the strike will be “incredibly tough” for the NHS.

He told BBC Breakfast the NHS is already “under enormous pressure”, adding: “So we are deeply concerned about the kind of impact over the coming days.”

Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairman of the BMA’s Junior Doctors Committee, told the PA news agency: “The notion that we’re hellbent on calling strikes and all we want to do is call strikes is not what we want. What we want is to negotiate an offer we can put to our members and for our members to accept it.

“I hope they (the Government) come back to the table now – but from all of the signals they are sending it won’t be until our strike action finishes. And I hope at that point we can come to a resolution.

“So as soon as our strike action finishes we will be asking the Government to get back round the table, which, as we’ve seen from what they have been saying so far, they should be very willing to do very rapidly.

“If the Government stall, or they don’t come to the table, or they make excuses, or they try to push things down the line without any clear reason as to why that is happening… then we will be led by our members.

“In the past when those kinds of actions have been displayed by the Government, our members have wanted us to call for further strike action. I hope that we don’t have to go there but I can’t rule it out.”

Dr Trivedi said patient safety was maintained during previous strikes and the union would respond to any requests for staff to return to work on safety grounds, known as derogation requests.

Health and Social Care Secretary Victoria Atkins said: “January is typically the busiest time of the year for the NHS and these strikes will have a serious impact on patients across the country.

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“I urge the BMA Junior Doctors Committee to call off their strikes and come back to the negotiating table so we can find a fair and reasonable solution to end the strikes once and for all.”

But Mr Hulme told LBC Radio: “My frustration over the months and months now of industrial action has been the inability, or the perceived inability, for the Government and the BMA to get around the table and to compromise and to find a solution.

“If you just read the rhetoric that comes from both sides, it seems that there’s an intransigent position, and whilst that continues it’s the patients who are paying the price.

He said that the strikes had “decimated our our plans to attack the long waiting times”, adding that for each cancelled appointment “there’s a life, there’s a delay, there’s not being able to get back to work, there’s an impact on them psychologically, socially and physically, so we need to find a solution quickly.”

Of the 1,219,422 acute inpatient and outpatient appointment cancellations since the current period of strikes began, just over three-quarters (77 per cent) have been on days where junior doctors have taken industrial action either by themselves or with other groups.

The BMA said junior doctors’ pay has been cut by more than a quarter since 2008.

Last summer, the Government gave junior doctors in England an average rise of 8.8 per cent, but medics said the increase was not enough and ramped up strike efforts.

Junior doctors from the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association union will join colleagues on picket lines.

Consultants and specialty and associate specialist (SAS) doctors have agreed a deal with the Government, which is being put to members.