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Strike action over pay by junior doctors in England next week will put patient safety at risk, frontline health leaders warned on Thursday, as fears grew of further stoppages by postal workers and teachers.
NHS Providers, which represents health organisations across the country, said the four-day walkout by members of the British Medical Association from April 11 would test the health service more than other strikes called since December 2022.
Its timing — many consultants who would normally provide cover will be on annual leave because of the Easter break — and its unprecedented duration were “making it harder to assure patient safety”, NHS Providers said.
The group said resources during the walkout would be focused on vital services such as emergency treatment, critical care, maternity and neonatal care, and trauma. But it cautioned that extensive conversations with leaders of hospital, mental health and community services pointed to “real concerns of a raised risk to safety”.
Chief executive Sir Julian Hartley said the NHS would next week be “in uncharted territory” but insisted it was “not too late for . . . the government and the unions to recognise the gravity of the situation and step back from the brink”.
In a letter on Wednesday, health secretary Steve Barclay told junior doctors’ leaders that he was prepared to discuss pay, but only if they dropped their demand for a 35 per cent increase and halted walkouts while talks occurred, according to an aide.
Barclay was responding to a request by the BMA last Friday for fresh negotiations this week. The most recent round of talks failed last month, with junior doctors saying the government had “failed to make any credible offer”.
Separately, Royal Mail said on Wednesday that talks with the postal workers’ union to resolve a long-running dispute over pay and working practices had broken down, setting the stage for more walkouts.
The group said its latest round of talks with the Communication Workers Union, which were mediated by dispute resolution body Acas, had ended despite Royal Mail making new offers on pay and working hours.
The CWU, which represents about 110,000 postal workers, said it was “willing to continue negotiations” but that it would be “considering all available options with regards to our next steps”.
The government on Wednesday also came under pressure to restart talks over a pay increase for school staff, after headteachers joined the National Education Union in rejecting ministers’ latest pay offer.
The National Association of Head Teachers said 90 per cent of its roughly 35,000 members had voted against a 4.5 per cent pay rise next year and £1,000 bonus this year. The vast majority of members said their budgets could not fund the increase, and 78 per cent said they would be willing to walk out to achieve a better deal.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT, said ministers “must now come back to the table and solve this dispute”, adding that the union would now discuss whether to ballot members over strike action.
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