Health leaders worried about impact of fresh wave of junior doctors strikes

Responding to the British Medical Association’s (BMA) announcement that junior doctors have voted to extend the mandate for industrial action Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: 

“It is extremely disappointing that junior doctors have voted to extend their industrial action. More disruption is the last thing that our members want when they are trying to tackle long waiting lists and improve performance across urgent and emergency care, mental health and community services.

“Health leaders will also be worried about the impact action short of a strike could have on services. The NHS faces wide staffing gaps and, unfortunately, can need to rely on the goodwill of staff to fill vital rota gaps and maintain patient safety. Action such as working to rule could pile immense pressure on to already stretched rotas.

“Despite health leaders and their teams working tirelessly to fill rotas and cover gaps it is patients who bear the brunt of this ongoing pay dispute between the BMA and government. More than 1.4 million appointments and operations have been cancelled over the last year of industrial action, all of which have had to be rescheduled – a time consuming and expensive exercise for NHS trusts. 

“We hope that the government and BMA’s junior doctors committee can restart negotiations as soon as possible to find a solution that ends this negative cycle of strikes. We call on both sides to lay out the basis for a realistic settlement that would be satisfactory to the majority of junior doctors.”