A hospital chief executive has warned the junior doctors’ strike has “decimated” its plans to cut NHS waiting lists.
Nick Hulme, the leader of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said the impact of the six-day walkout starting this morning will be “absolutely huge” with hundreds of appointments and thousands of outpatients visits already cancelled as a result.
Thousands of junior doctors making up nearly half the doctor workforce across the NHS are expected to take part in the longest strike in NHS history. The industril action has fuelled fears routine services could be brought to a standstill in some areas of England.
Speaking to LBC Radio, Mr Hulme said: “There’s no doubt that the impact on patients is absolutely huge. These are people who’ve already waited a very very long time.
“So although we will maintain emergency services - we can assure people that if they require urgent care, Maternity, A&E, ITU etc,
“The care will be safe - this has absolutely decimated our our plans to attack the long waiting times.”
Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, warned the strike was going to be “incredibly tough” for the NHS, while another official warned contingency plans could be wrecked if just one covering consultant went off sick from work.
Sir Julian told BBC Breakfast: “It’s going to be really tough, it’s a significant moment. It’s about the scale and the duration... So it’s the longest strike we’ve ever faced.
“I ran a trust for many years and (this week) is without doubt, the toughest week the NHS faces (each year) - immediately after the Christmas and New Year period because of the pressures the demands, and of course we’ve got flu, we’ve got Covid.
“So there’s going to be an impact on patients that will be significant - the vast majority of planned operations appointments and so on, will have to be stood down, consultants will be covering the work of junior doctors, and of course at a time when there’s a lot of Covid and flu about, that can affect staff as well as patients so the challenge of filling those rotas will be significant for a lot of organisations.”
Sir Julian said the NHS is already “under enormous pressure” adding: “So we are deeply concerned about the kind of impact over the coming days.”
While Dr Layla McCay, director of policy at the NHS Confederation, said hospitals’ contingency plans could be in “jeopardy” if just one or two consultants go off sick.
“Across the whole country leaders are telling us that this particular round of industrial action, coming at the time that it does, and being of such a long duration, is going to be perhaps its (the NHS’) toughest challenge yet,” she 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 what we mean by skating on thin ice is that 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 there’s a lot of Covid and flu, norovirus other 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 aren’t so concerned that this is skating on thin ice.”