The first all-out doctors’ strike in the NHS’s history is a “bleak day”, ministers say, but hospitals seem to be coping well during Tuesday’s stoppage.
Junior doctors walked out of routine and emergency care on the 26th April 2016 at 08:00 BST. The strike affects A&E, maternity and intensive care for the first time.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt expressed disappointment that the stoppage was taking place, but again said the government would not back down and halt the imposition of the new contract. The walkout ended at 17:00 BST with further all-out action due to take place on Wednesday, between the same hours, in the protest against the imposition of the new contract from the summer.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Hunt described it as a “very, very bleak day” for the NHS, but said no union had the right to stop a government trying to act on a manifesto promise.
“The reason this has happened is because the government has been unable to negotiate sensibly and reasonably with the BMA.”
Before the strike, government sources had indicated that they could not give in because the row had become political, with the BMA trying to topple the government, and other unions watching the dispute “like hawks”. The BMA described this as ridiculous.
During the stoppage, hospitals can request that junior doctors return to work if needed, but as yet, no NHS trust has raised the alarm.
There have been reports that hospitals may be quieter than normal with patients heeding warnings to stay away unless absolutely necessary.
On the second day of the strike, the tension has increased between Jeremy Hunt and the strikers, as Mr Hunt didn’t go out of his way to rule out such an option, replying that he agreed “on his broader point”. “When someone is paid a high salary, that comes with the responsibilities of a profession,” he added, going on to urge doctors to be “very careful about the impact” of their “totally inappropriate” strike action.
This seems to have been lost on junior doctors, who have been whipped up by the British Medical Association into continuing on with the second part of their walk-out. Many voters are quite open to the idea of banning doctors from striking outright, with YouGov finding that a majority of those surveyed have felt this way for many years. This suggests that Jeremy Hunt could expect some support if he decided that doctors were too important to be allowed to walk out again. More than 100,000 appointments have been cancelled, with some 12,700 operations postponed to cope with this full-blown strike, while the BMA makes out that patient care is kept up to standard thanks tosenior consultants stepping in. This, of course, is not the status quo, but an emergency measure used by the NHS.
