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More than half a million operations and appointments have been ditched as a result of NHS strikes, official figures show.
There were at least 201,000 cancellations last week when junior doctors staged a four-day walkout, resulting in an average of 26,145 medics being absent each day.
It means the total has now soared past 531,000 since December because of industrial action by doctors, nurses, paramedics and physiotherapists.
NHS England said the true impact is likely to have been much higher as not all hospitals have provided staffing data and many had avoided scheduling consultations on these dates.
National medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis admitted it is becoming ‘increasingly difficult’ to manage the impact of the walkouts and warned this will ‘unfortunately continue to worsen’. He added: ‘Today’s figures lay bare the colossal impact of industrial action on planned care in the NHS. Our staff now have an immense amount of work to catch up.’
More than half a million operations and appointments have been ditched as a result of NHS strikes, official figures show
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents healthcare organisations, also fears there is ‘far worse’ disruption to come from strikes, with ‘long-term consequences for patients’.
And Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, said: ‘The huge number of rescheduled operations and appointments will keep climbing unless the Government sits down with unions to find a way to prevent any more strikes.’
The figures came as Rishi Sunak vowed to face down striking nurses and ruled out a better pay offer. He insisted the Government had already put ‘significantly more money’ on the table in its latest rejected offer and indicated there’d be no more.
Mr Sunak took aim at a potential joint ‘mega strike’ between nurses and doctors following a speech in London, saying ‘everyone will be concerned about the impact on patient care’.
Nurses are planning to walk out in emergency departments, intensive care and cancer wards for the first time later this month.
And Royal College of Nursing union bosses are threatening to carry on the strikes until Christmas. Last week its members snubbed a 5 per cent pay rise and one-off lump sum of between £1,655 and £3,789.
However, members of Unison, which represents ambulance workers, accepted the deal.
The British Medical Association, behind last week’s strikes by junior doctors and which is calling for a 35 per cent pay rise, has said it is ‘not ruling in or out’ joint action with other unions.
It came as patients have been left waiting more than two days for an ambulance in England, new analysis suggests.
Data collected by Labour from Freedom of Information requests shows patients across the country enduring long waits for ambulances to arrive or stuck outside hospitals waiting to be admitted to A&E.
The figures, collected in responses from half of ambulance trusts by the party, showed that in the North West in December a patient waited 65 hours, 38 minutes and 13 seconds for a response to a category 3 call.
Category 3 calls are classified as urgent but are not immediately life-threatening, with problems including a diabetes issue or requirement for pain control to relieve suffering. These calls should be reached within two hours in nine out of ten cases.
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The data also showed that the longest waits for an ambulance following category 2 calls in the West Midlands and Yorkshire (which can include people with heart attack and stroke) meant patients were left waiting over 21 hours. The target is 18 minutes.
Meanwhile, also in December, the longest wait for a category 2 call in the East Midlands was more than 26 hours.
Other Freedom of Information data collected by Labour for 2022 showed that one patient waited 40 hours in the back of an ambulance outside a hospital in the South West, while in the East of England there was an almost 36-hour wait, and one of 32 hours in the West Midlands.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘Patients can no longer trust that an ambulance will reach them in an emergency.
The figures came as Rishi Sunak vowed to face down striking nurses and ruled out a better pay offer. He insisted the Government had already put ‘significantly more money’ on the table in its latest rejected offer and indicated there’d be no more
‘Stroke and heart attack victims are left waiting for hours, when every second counts.’
NHS Providers chief executive Sir Julian Hartley said: ‘These figures are further evidence, were it needed, that last winter was one of toughest on record for the NHS.
‘Trust leaders will be very concerned by these wait times as ensuring timely, high-quality care for patients is their top priority.
‘The causes of long ambulance waits are complex. High demand – always at its worst in winter – along with overstretched capacity and vast workforce shortages all contribute.
‘Trust leaders are working extremely hard to recover urgent and emergency care services and develop community and mental health support to ensure patients can access the care they need swiftly in the right setting. However, they desperately need action on a national level to help tackle these problems.
‘The Government’s promised long-term workforce plan, which must be fully funded and costed, should help address these issues. It cannot come a minute too soon.’
NHS England data shows that, on average, people waiting for a response to a category 2 call in December waited one hour, 32 minutes and 54 seconds.
Some 36,000 category 2 patients overall waited more than three-and-a-half hours in December for ambulances, the data showed.
There was a big improvement in January, to an average response time of 39 minutes and 33 seconds. However, this was still above the 18-minute target.
Meanwhile, from December 1 to February 28, some 129,023 people waited more than an hour in ambulances outside hospitals.
Mr Streeting said: ‘This is the terrifying reality after 13 years of Conservative understaffing of our NHS.
‘Patients should be able to phone 999, safe in the knowledge that they will get an answer and an ambulance when they need it. The longer we give the Conservatives in office, the longer patients will wait.
‘Labour will launch the biggest expansion of the NHS workforce in history, training the staff needed to reach patients on time, paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax status. We will ensure the NHS is there for us when we need it once again.’
