Hospitals are urging families of patients to ‘be on hand’ to take them home to ease pressure on the NHS as the junior doctors’ strike continues.
Their pleas came as Health Secretary Victoria Atkins accused the medics of acting as if they own the health service after they rejected pleas to abandon the strike in the interest of patient safety.
Her comments came after a number of trusts asked the British Medical Association to allow some of its members to cross picket lines to relieve the intolerable pressure on the NHS.
But the BMA has rejected at least 20 such requests, claiming the agreed protocol is being ‘undermined’ by the NHS, which has caved in to ‘political pressure’.
Meanwhile, some hospitals have asked families of patients to ‘be on hand’ to help during the crisis.
Victoria Atkins has accused medics of acting as if they owned the health service after refusing to abandon their strike in the interest of patient safety
University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust called on family members to ‘collect relatives who are ready to go home to free up beds for those needing emergency care’.
Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust said: ‘Collecting family and friends from hospital as soon as they are ready to be discharged helps to free up beds for those who need them.’
In response to the BMA’s accusation, NHS England wrote to the union saying it was ‘regrettable’ that it had called into question the ‘integrity and motive’ of clinical leaders who are doing ‘whatever is necessary to maintain safe care for patients through periods of action’.
About 200,000 operations and appointments are expected to be cancelled in the present walkouts.
Bosses are particularly concerned about their ability to manage cancer patients who need time-sensitive treatment and pregnant women who require urgent Caesareans, the letter added.
Under a system agreed between the NHS and BMA, hospital leaders can ask for a number of junior doctors to return to work if there are patient safety concerns in a particular area – known as a request for a derogation.
NHS chiefs had sought national derogation for services such as urgent maternity care, but these were turned down.
NHS England will now compile a dossier detailing all patient harms and near misses which result from the BMA’s failure to agree to derogations – methods of maintaining safe staff levels on strike days – or when they are slow to respond.
During a visit to the London Ambulance Service, Ms Atkins said the strikes were resulting in ‘very serious consequences’ for patients and other NHS workers. She offered to get back to the negotiating table within 20 minutes if the BMA called off the strike.
Ms Atkins backed managers who say they need additional support from striking junior doctors.
She said: ‘We have to have the strikes called off – because the NHS belongs to us all. It doesn’t just belong to the junior doctors committee. And for the 1.3million people who work in the NHS and, of course, for the tens of millions of people it looks after, the NHS cannot be switched on and off on a whim.’ The medics began a six-day walkout on Wednesday, which comes as the NHS battles with seasonal pressures.
The BMA said junior doctors’ pay has been cut by more than a quarter since 2008, and is demanding a path to full pay restoration – a rise of around 35 per cent (Pictured: Junior doctors striking in London on Thursday)
Hospital admissions in England for people with flu or Covid are running at their highest level so far this winter, figures show.
Admissions for flu rose last week for the sixth week in a row, to 6.8 per 100,000 people, a level classed as having ‘medium impact’ on hospitals, although about half of last year’s level.
Admissions of people testing positive for Covid-19 stood at 5.2 per 100,000 last week after the fifth weekly rise.
During a visit to Nottinghamshire, Mr Sunak said: ‘It’s absolutely right that NHS leaders, completely independent of government, are making clinical decisions on the ground and requesting that extra support where they feel they need it.’
On the first day of the strike, critical incidents were declared at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth and by the NHS in Nottingham. More than a dozen hospitals said emergency services were busy, with some reporting ‘extreme heightened pressure’.
The BMA said junior doctors’ pay has been cut by more than a quarter since 2008. It is demanding a path to full pay restoration, which would require a rise of about 35 per cent.
Yesterday Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairman of the BMA junior doctors committee, posted on X: ‘Year after year the NHS leaders have presided over deteriorating conditions and patient harm.
‘The NHS leaders have failed and now they’re closing ranks with the Government to throw doctors under the bus during our biggest whistleblowing exercise. The NHS hates doctors.’
