NHS England and BMA clash over patient safety risks during ongoing strike action
The ‘cumulative’ impact of doctor strikes is now causing ‘significant disruption’ and risk to patient safety, NHS England has told the British Medical Association (BMA) in a formal warning letter.
However the BMA argued that patient safety is being put at risk due to strike planning failures by NHS England.
Following months of walkouts, consultants and junior doctors are jointly striking for three full days this week, with ‘Christmas Day’-level cover.
NHS England noted doctors are taking ‘lawful industrial action in line with their respective mandates’, but added that it is ‘increasingly concerned that the cumulative impact of this action is causing significant disruption and risk to patients’.
It said: ‘In writing to you, we recognise the stated aim of the BMA to protect urgent and emergency care during industrial action and to maintain patient safety.’
NHS England is ‘extremely concerned’ that Christmas Day cover is ‘insufficient’ to ensure appropriate levels of patient safety are being maintained.
‘This is particularly the case in the current period of industrial action, with three consecutive Christmas Day levels of service.
‘The reasons for this are two-fold: we are not experiencing Christmas Day levels of pressure, when demand falls by around a third, nor are we seeing the drop in bed occupancy levels that occurs immediately prior to Christmas.
‘In addition, successive days of Christmas Day cover are significantly impacting on the ability of systems to maintain flow throughout our emergency pathways, which in turn is resulting in delayed ambulance handovers, deteriorating ambulance response times and long waits for patients in Emergency Departments.’
The letter, signed by workforce chief Dr Navina Evans and national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis and others, noted these issues were already raised in regular industrial action operational meetings.
