unior doctor strikes have cost the NHS about £1 billion, according to a senior health boss, as a fifth round of industrial action threatens further disruption to patient care.
Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, said hospital trusts were having to “pay premium rates to consultants” to cover the roles of junior doctors while they were on picket lines.
The walkouts are expected to lead to one million procedures and appointments being cancelled and rearranged by the time the round of action is over in four days’ time, he said.
Starting on Friday, the latest round of strike action from British Medical Association (BMA) junior doctors in England will end at 7am on Tuesday August 15 as the bitter pay dispute with the Government continues.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay has claimed strike action by doctors “serves only to harm patients” and puts “further pressure” on their colleagues.
Mr Barclay, writing for the Daily Mail, said: “I want to have a grown-up conversation about how to fix the legitimate frustrations these doctors face, and work together to improve their working lives.
So far, we estimate strikes have cost the NHS around a billion pounds
“Striking is not going to help anyone achieve that and ultimately it is patients that have to bear the brunt of walkouts.”
His Conservative colleague, Chief Secretary to the Treasury John Glen, said the rescheduling of thousands of operations was “not good for patients” as he defended the pay offer made to those striking.
“We as a Government have to be responsible in the pay settlements that we give, and we listened to the Independent Pay Review body and that means giving junior doctors in their first year over 10% increase,” he told Sky News.
The Department of Health and Social Care has said that the pay rise offered to junior doctors – a 6% bump along with an additional consolidated £1,250 increase, which the Government describes as an “average increase of around 8.8%” – was “fair and reasonable” and “above what most in the public and private sectors are receiving”.
Some junior doctors on strike on Friday started their first NHS jobs only days before walking out.
Foundation Year 1 doctors started their first roles after medical school on Wednesday August 2 – just nine days ago.
NHS Providers’ Sir Julian told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Every strike costs a huge amount to the NHS.
“So far, we estimate strikes have cost the NHS around a billion pounds and of course, that is the consequence of having to pay premium rates to consultants to cover junior doctors, the lost income from all of the activity that doesn’t go ahead.”
Concerns have also been mounting over the impact of the strike on staffing levels after a High Court ruling which means the NHS cannot seek support from agency staff, as was the case during previous strikes.
The ruling in July concluded that employers could not use agency workers to fill in for striking staff.
While the NHS can use its own bank staff, NHS England pointed to the “additional challenge” posed to the service during this round of strikes.
The BMA said talks on pay at a ministerial level could help to resolve the dispute, with calls for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to get personally involved.
Mr Sunak has made cutting NHS waiting lists one of his top five pledges ahead of the next general election, pledging in January that “lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly”.
However, he has since said that strikes across the health service were making the task of achieving that goal “more challenging”.
Data published by NHS England on Thursday revealed waiting lists climbed to a record high of 7.6 million in June.
Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairman of the BMA, told Today: “We would always like to talk and we’d always like to avert strike action.
“Indeed, you know, Mr Barclay could send us an email – or preferably Mr Sunak – and we could organise a negotiation right now and stop the next four days of strike action.”
Speaking later on the picket line outside University College Hospital in London on Friday, Dr Laurenson said junior doctor pay had been cut by almost 32% in the past 15 years.
“We’re looking to restore that pay back to what it was like in 2008,” he said.
“At the moment, doctors are starting on £14-an-hour. We’re asking for that to go up to £20-an-hour.
“The Government don’t want to negotiate, they don’t want to talk.”
But Mr Barclay, in comments to broadcasters, stated that the Government’s latest pay offer was “fair and final” and urged the BMA to “call off their strikes”.
During the 96-hour strike period, the NHS has urged the public to continue to use 999 for life-threatening emergencies and 111 online for anything non-urgent.
It said GPs and pharmacies are also open and largely unaffected by strikes.
Meanwhile, patients should attend their appointment as usual unless they have been told that it is to be rescheduled, it added.