
250,000 missed appointments and an £87million bill for the NHS: The crippling cost to patients forecast for five-day doctors' strike
The walkouts may also cost the NHS £87million in staffing cover, a think-tank has said.
Resident doctors – previously known as junior doctors – will strike for five days from Friday in pursuit of a 29 per cent pay rise.
Charities have expressed their 'deep concern' at the action and warned it will cause 'significant distress, pain and worsening health for patients'. Now the Policy Exchange think-tank has estimated the 'considerable' impact it is likely to have on waiting lists and NHS finances.
Consultants will be able to cash-in by charging hospitals inflated rates of up to £2,504 a shift to cover for absent junior colleagues, depleting trusts of funds that could have been used to buy new scanners, repair buildings or deliver more procedures.
The British Medical Association is further demanding hospitals pay consultants £6,000 to provide on-call cover for striking colleagues.
But there is still unlikely to be enough doctors to provide a full service, meaning bosses will be forced to cancel some appointments.
Resident doctors have crippled the NHS by taking industrial action 11 times since 2022.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has described the BMA's behaviour as 'shockingly irresponsible' and insisted he will not budge on pay
If strikes occur at the same rate over the next six months, Policy Exchange estimates more than two million appointments could be affected. It also puts the cost of providing consultant cover at £17.5million a day, totalling £367.46million over the same period.
The figures come just days after an investigation revealed coroners' reports had linked at least five patient deaths to junior doctor strikes in 2023/24. Resident doctors belonging to the BMA have voted to walkout for up to six months despite receiving above inflation pay rises for the past three years, worth an extra 28.9 per cent in total. This includes an inflation-busting rise this year of 5.4 per cent, which is the most generous in the public sector.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has described the BMA's behaviour as 'shockingly irresponsible' and insisted he will not budge on pay.
Policy Exchange estimates that strikes could reduce inpatient activity for the month of July by 4.5 per cent and outpatient activity by 8.7 per cent, threatening NHS England's ability to meet its target of treating 65 per cent of patients within 18 weeks from next spring.
The report also suggest strikes could make it 'impossible' for the Prime Minister to deliver on his pledge to reach a target of 92 per cent by the next election. The analysis assumes a similar level of disruption as in previous strikes.
Former Tory health secretary Victoria Atkins welcomed the Policy Exchange's report, named 'Completely Unreasonable': The Possible Impact of the BMA Resident Doctor Committee's Proposed Industrial Action. She said: 'As Labour changes the law to make it easier for unions to call strikes, this sort of action will only become more likely.'
Mr Streeting and the BMA are due to meet this week. It is understood other ways to boost doctors' finances, such as changes to student loans and pensions are being examined.
Fewer than half of resident doctors entitled to vote in the latest BMA ballot backed action. The Mail approached the BMA and the health department for comment.

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The Independent
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What to know about Ozzy Osbourne's rare form of Parkinson's disease
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Leader Live
22 minutes ago
- Leader Live
Streeting: We are doing everything we can to minimise patient harm during strike
A five-day walkout by resident doctors in England is under way, with members of the British Medical Association (BMA) manning picket lines across the country. The Health Secretary condemned the strike as 'reckless' and said the Government would not allow the BMA to 'hold the country to ransom'. Asked about the risk of patient harm during a visit to NHS England HQ in London, he told the PA news agency on Friday: 'I'm really proud of the way that NHS leaders and frontline staff have prepared and mobilised to minimise the disruption and minimise the risk of harm to patients. 'We've seen an extraordinary response, including people cancelling their leave, turning up for work, and resident doctors themselves ignoring their union to be there for patients. I'm extremely grateful to all of them. 'What I can't do today is guarantee that there will be no disruption and that there is no risk of harm to patients. 'We are doing everything we can to minimise it, but the risk is there, and that is why the BMA's action is so irresponsible. 'They had a 28.9% pay award from this Government in our first year, there was also an offer to work with them on other things that affect resident doctors – working lives – and that's why I think this is such reckless action. 'This Government will not allow the BMA to hold the country to ransom, and we will continue to make progress on NHS improvement, as we've done in our first year.' Asked about next steps and the continued threat of doctor strikes, given the BMA has a six-month mandate to call more industrial action, Mr Streeting said: 'When the BMA asks, 'what's the difference between a Labour government and a Conservative government?', I would say a 28.9% pay rise and a willingness to work together to improve the working conditions and lives of doctors. 'That is why the public and other NHS staff cannot understand why the BMA have chosen to embark on this totally unnecessary, reckless strike action.' It comes as NHS chief executive Sir Jim Mackey told broadcasters on Friday about his different approach to managing the strike, including keeping as much pre-planned care going as possible rather than just focusing on emergency care. 'So the difference this time is the NHS has put a huge effort in to try and get back on its feet,' he said at NHS England HQ in London. 'As everybody's been aware, we've had a really tough period, and you really feel colleagues on the ground, local clinical leaders, clinical operational colleagues etc, really pulling together to try and get the NHS back on its feet. 'And we also learned from the last few rounds of industrial action that harm to patients and disruption to patients was much broader than the original definitions. So we've decided to say it needs to be a broader definition. We can't just focus on that small subset of care. 'Colleagues in the service have tried to keep as much going as humanly possible as well, and the early signs are that that's been achieved so far, but it is early doors. 'In the end, capacity will have to be constrained by the numbers of people we've actually got who do just turn up for work, and what that means in terms of safe provision, because the thing that colleagues won't compromise is safety in the actual delivery. But it does look like people have really heard that. 'They're really pulling together to maximise the range of services possible.' Asked about further strikes, he said: 'It is possible. I would hope not. I would hope after this, we'll be able to get people in a room and resolve the issue. 'But if we are in this with a six month mandate, we could be doing this once a month for the next next six months, but we've got to organise ourselves accordingly.' Asked why he was not willing to bump pay from what the BMA calculates is £18 an hour to £22 per hour, Mr Streeting told broadcasters: 'I think the public can see, and other NHS staff can see the willingness this Government showed from day one coming into office to try and deal with what had been over a decade of failure on behalf of the previous government, working with resident doctors to improve their pay and to improve the NHS. 'That's why resident doctors had a 28.9% pay award, and that's why the disruption they are inflicting on the country is so unnecessary and so irresponsible.' Mr Streeting said 'we know there'll be real challenges over the next five days'. He added that patients, particularly those who end up waiting a long time for care due to strikes, 'do come to harm, and however much the BMA try and sugarcoat it, what they are fundamentally doing today is forgetting the three words that should be at the forefront of every doctor's minds every day, which is, 'do no harm'.' On whether strikes are going to become the 'new normal', he added: 'As I've said before, the BMA have had a 28.9% pay award from this Government, and we were willing to go further to help on some of the working conditions that doctors face. 'That offer of joint working, that partnership approach, that hasn't gone away, but it does take two to tango, and I hope that the BMA will reflect very carefully on the disruption they are inflicting on patients, the pressures they're putting on their colleagues, and the circumstances in which they are doing so – a 28.9% pay rise and a government that was willing to work with them. 'Those are not grounds for strike action.' It comes after Sir Keir Starmer made a last-minute appeal to resident doctors, saying the strikes would 'cause real damage'. He added: 'Most people do not support these strikes. 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The Guardian
40 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Graham Thorpe's care had 'failings' in last months of his life, says coroner
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