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| Hospitals cannot cope with five-day strikes by junior doctors, BMA told | |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| The head of the NHS in England has asked the British Medical Association to call off its planned week-long strikes, warning that hospitals cannot cope without 50,000 junior doctors and that seriously ill patients will be put at risk. | |
| Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, joined the growing chorus of criticism of the doctors’ union. It has been accused of endangering patients by arranging a series of five-day all-out strikes in England, starting in October – the latest protest against the new contract that health secretary Jeremy Hunt is imposing on junior doctors. | |
| “We should be in no doubt that it will not be possible to ensure there will be no harm to patients, even with several weeks’ notice, if we are talking about multiple weeks of up to 50,000 doctors not being available for emergency care at hospitals across this country,” Stevens said at the NHS Expo in Manchester. | “We should be in no doubt that it will not be possible to ensure there will be no harm to patients, even with several weeks’ notice, if we are talking about multiple weeks of up to 50,000 doctors not being available for emergency care at hospitals across this country,” Stevens said at the NHS Expo in Manchester. |
| “The vital importance of junior doctors to the NHS can never be underestimated and so it is not just about the notice period, it is about the impact that action would have.” | “The vital importance of junior doctors to the NHS can never be underestimated and so it is not just about the notice period, it is about the impact that action would have.” |
| Stevens asked the BMA to call off the strikes, which will include critical departments such as A&E, maternity services and intensive care. “No good for patients will come out of the kind of action that is still on the table,” he said. | |
| “What it means is that patients who needed their outpatient appointment or their operation are having those deferred and, where it is a day or two, then the hospitals have been able to cope, but when it is repeated, blocks of perhaps five days at a time, then the potential impact for urgent care, and the knock-on for patients with very substantially high-risk conditions, is far greater.” | “What it means is that patients who needed their outpatient appointment or their operation are having those deferred and, where it is a day or two, then the hospitals have been able to cope, but when it is repeated, blocks of perhaps five days at a time, then the potential impact for urgent care, and the knock-on for patients with very substantially high-risk conditions, is far greater.” |
| Key medical bodies such as the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and the General Medical Council have already made clear their deep unease about the scale of the action. | |
| Stevens spoke out as a senior figure in the doctors’ union said it was in a “total mess” over the junior doctors dispute and was pushing ahead with strikes despite having “lost the battle” with Hunt. | |
| BMA leaders are backing the walkouts partly because they want to avoid junior doctors breaking away and forming their own union, the well-placed source told the Guardian. | |
| The BMA insider, who asked not to be named, said: “The BMA are in a total mess. We have lost the battle [over junior doctors’ contracts] lock, stock and barrel.” | |
| On Monday the BMA called off a five-day strike it intended to hold next week. Junior doctors had been set to refuse to work in hospitals across England between 8am and 5pm, even in critical departments. The climbdown followed a revolt by grassroots trainee medics, who feared the BMA had not given the NHS long enough to prepare for the walkout. | |
| The BMA is under growing pressure to cancel three other all-out five-day strikes, scheduled for October, November and December. Leaders of many of the medical royal colleges, which represent different types of doctors, fear that hospitals will not be able to cope with the disruption to services that such sustained action would involve. | The BMA is under growing pressure to cancel three other all-out five-day strikes, scheduled for October, November and December. Leaders of many of the medical royal colleges, which represent different types of doctors, fear that hospitals will not be able to cope with the disruption to services that such sustained action would involve. |
| A second well-placed BMA source said the organisation was “in meltdown at the moment” over the planned strikes, which have fractured the medical profession’s previous unity over junior doctors. Some senior medics – consultants – accuse the BMA of endorsing walkouts that are reckless, disproportionate and will ruin the public’s trust in doctors. | |
| Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospitals, said: “Despite next week’s strike having been postponed, many patients will already have been inconvenienced and will now need their appointments rescheduled. This strike action will continue to harm the NHS and lead to a huge backlog that will take months to clear, unnecessarily prolonging patients’ suffering and pain in the process. | Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospitals, said: “Despite next week’s strike having been postponed, many patients will already have been inconvenienced and will now need their appointments rescheduled. This strike action will continue to harm the NHS and lead to a huge backlog that will take months to clear, unnecessarily prolonging patients’ suffering and pain in the process. |
| “We are urging the BMA to go one step further and cancel all remaining strikes. Failure to do so will only bring further distress, delay and pain to patients.” | “We are urging the BMA to go one step further and cancel all remaining strikes. Failure to do so will only bring further distress, delay and pain to patients.” |
| He said hospital bosses were not sure they could guarantee patients’ safety during five-day strikes. | He said hospital bosses were not sure they could guarantee patients’ safety during five-day strikes. |
| The senior BMA insider said the union’s ruling council, which voted 16-11 to back the fresh series of strikes, was “totally divided” over what to do next, given the health secretary’s refusal to lift his threat to impose the new contract on all 54,000 junior doctors in England from next month. | |
| “The BMA’s aims are totally confused. Council members are saying that the BMA is in a no-win situation whatever happens. The BMA leadership fear that if they don’t do enough to support junior doctors, junior doctors will declare UDI, say that the BMA has let them down and go it alone.” | “The BMA’s aims are totally confused. Council members are saying that the BMA is in a no-win situation whatever happens. The BMA leadership fear that if they don’t do enough to support junior doctors, junior doctors will declare UDI, say that the BMA has let them down and go it alone.” |
| Some junior doctors are questioning the purpose of the strikes, given Hunt’s refusal to lift his threat of imposition, and the risk to patients they involve. “The BMA has not even defined the aims of this latest industrial action and cannot strike on that basis. You can’t do things like this without having worked out your strategy first,” one said. | |