NHS officials concerned about ‘impact of strikes’ on emergency care and wait times

The chief strategy officer of NHS England has expressed concerns about the impact that this month’s junior doctor strikes will have on emergency care and waiting lists.

Chris Hopson told a summit hosted by the Nuffield Trust he expected the three-day strike, which will begin on Monday, March 13, to have a ‘bigger and wider spread’ than other industrial action held so far.

Nearly 40,000 junior doctors voted to take industrial action in the British Medical Association (BMA) ballot. Talks between the BMA and Health Secretary Steve Barclay failed to reach agreement on Thursday, with the strikes now set to go ahead.

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There is expected to be a greater number of staff involved in the strike action, with 61,000 junior doctors now believed to be taking part.

It is thought the BMA may not agree to exempt any areas of healthcare from the strikes (derogations), though staff can be recalled if there is an incident involving mass casualties.

Mr Hopson told health leaders: “I do think it’s really important to recognise that, were the BMA strikes to go ahead, then they will be greater in scale than we’ve seen before.

“All NHS organisations have junior doctors so it will be a bigger and a wider spread. The impact will be greater on the NHS – for example half of all GP practices actually have trainees.

“It will last longer in terms of it will be for 72 hours. The BMA have said publicly that they think it’s unlikely that there will be national level derogations which, as you know, have been really important in terms of managing for example, the nursing strike.

“And we know that there will be greater numbers of staff involved – it will be just