NHS Industrial Action

Tuesday 18th April 2023 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Steve Barclay)]

Yesterday evening NHS England published data about the impact of a 96-hour strike by junior doctors from 07:00 on Tuesday 11 April to 06:59 on Saturday 15 April.

It is regrettable that the BMA’s Junior Doctors Committee, HCSA, and BDA hospital trainees chose to cause maximum disruption to NHS services by staging such a long walk out with no national derogations immediately after the Easter bank holiday.

I would like to thank all those NHS staff, including nurses and consultants, who went above and beyond to provide cover last week and ensure patient safety.

Our priority is always to keep patients safe during any industrial action. The NHS makes every effort through rigorous contingency planning to minimise disruption and its impact on patients and the public during industrial action. The NHS rightly prioritised resources to protect emergency and critical care, maternity care and, where possible, continued to prioritise patients who have waited the longest for elective care and cancer surgery. Where necessary, Trusts cancelled non-urgent appointments to prioritise urgent and emergency care.

The data published last night shows that around 196,000 appointments were rescheduled due to strike action, with around 5,000 in mental health and community appointments. On average, around 26,000 junior doctors were absent each day. The data can be found at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/preparedness-for-potential-industrial-action-in-the-nhs/#headinq-3. These figures are subject to change as not all Trusts have submitted data yet and hence, data is incomplete.

Through the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill we intend to legislate across different sectors, that will enable people to continue to attend their place of work, access education and healthcare, and go about their daily lives during strikes, while balancing this against the ability to strike. We are already consulting on whether minimum service levels should be in place for ambulance services. Given that increasingly strike action is being taken without voluntary derogations being agreed, we will now consider whether we need to consult on additional minimum service levels covering a wider range of health services to protect the lives and health of the public.

[HCWS725]