Junior doctors accused of jeopardising patients' safety by going on strike

Junior doctors were today accused of jeopardising patient safety as they went on strike for the first time in 40 years, leading to thousands of operations being cancelled.

Hospitals across England activated contingency plans to minimise the impact on patients of the walk-out, over changes to pay and working hours, which started at 8am.

But one hospital in the Midlands was forced to order junior medics to work as it struggled to cope with patient numbers.

Doctors at a picket line in central London Jeremy Selwyn
Jeremy Selwyn

Picket lines were in place outside 20 London hospitals as services were reduced to “Christmas Day levels”, with 700 operations cancelled.

Dr Andy Mitchell, London medical director for NHS England, said the strike would “compound the problem” caused by winter pressures.

Sir Robert Francis QC, who chaired the inquiry into the Mid Staffordshire hospital scandal, warned: “Industrial action will not solve their (the doctors’) problems and can only compromise patient safety.” But he also stressed that the Government should be listening to the medics.

Jeremy Corbyn blamed the strike on the Government and accused it of “smearing” the doctors. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt was keeping off the airwaves this morning.

NHS medical director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh told hospital bosses that doctors should be ordered off the picket line if hospitals become unsafe. Sandwell Hospital in West Bromwich declared a “level 4 incident” and told its junior doctors they must come to work.

The British Medical Association said the doctors should continue with the strike until NHS England confirmed that a “major unpredictable incident” was happening. Doctors were not striking in casualty units.

In the capital, thousands of patients had hospital clinics cancelled and hundreds of operations were postponed.

Dr Mitchell conceded that junior doctors were “clearly highly disillusioned” but pleaded with them to negotiate a settlement.

The action, until 8am tomorrow, will be followed by a 48-hour walkout starting on January 26 and for nine hours on February 10.

Dr Dagan Lonsdale, a junior doctor at St George’s hospital, said they had been forced into action by the Government’s threat to impose new contracts that would lead to “unsafe” staffing.

Dr Lina Carmona, on the picket line at UCLH, warned that the Government was forcing medics to make life-and-death decisions while their minds and bodies felt “jetlagged” on 12-hour nightshifts.

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