The NHS is coping well with the doctors’ strike in England, the head of the health service says.<\/p>\n
In a letter to health managers, NHS England chief executive Sir Jim Mackey said while it was still early days in the six-day strike, which began on Tuesday, the NHS was in \u00ab\u00a0as good a place as we could hope\u00a0\u00bb after the first day.<\/p>\n
Resident doctors \u2013 the new name for junior doctors \u2013 are taking part in their 15th walkout in the long-running pay dispute.<\/p>\n
The British Medical Association said the strike was \u00ab\u00a0regrettable\u00a0\u00bb, but blamed the government for failing to put forward a credible offer.<\/p>\n
Resident doctors make up nearly half the medical workforce \u2013 although a third of them are not BMA members.<\/p>\n
To cope, hospitals have drafted senior doctors in to provide cover in emergency and urgent care.<\/p>\n
But that has meant some pre-planned operations and treatments have had to be cancelled, although the NHS said the majority were still taking place.<\/p>\n
In his letter, Sir Jim said it was \u00ab\u00a0tough for staffing picking up the strain\u00a0\u00bb and the walkout had been \u00ab\u00a0deliberately time to cause havoc\u00a0\u00bb after the Easter weekend.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0I know how disruptive and challenging it’s been for many hospitals to manage it and fill their rotas following the Easter weekend.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0There’s a long way to go, but it looks like we’re in as good a place as we could hope on day one.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
The latest walkout comes after talks with the government broke down last month.<\/p>\n
Despite receiving pay rises worth 33% over the past four years, the BMA argues doctors are still being paid a fifth less than they were in 2008 once inflation is taken into account.<\/p>\n
BMA resident doctor leader Dr Jack Fletcher said it was \u00ab\u00a0regrettable\u00a0\u00bb that strike action had been taken again and he was \u00ab\u00a0sorry\u00a0\u00bb for the disruption caused.<\/p>\n
But he added: \u00ab\u00a0These strikes were entirely avoidable. If we keep treating doctors as an inconvenience rather than an asset, we will end up with an NHS that simply doesn’t have enough doctors.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said resident doctors had been offered a \u00ab\u00a0generous deal\u00a0\u00bb. Alongside the pay rises they have had, the government also said it would expand training places and cover out-of-pocket expenses such as exam fees.<\/p>\n
On the latest round of strikes, he said: \u00ab\u00a0People and patients are understandably fed up.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Latest polling from YouGov shows a majority of the public are opposed to the doctor walkouts.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch said she would ban doctors going on strike \u00ab\u00a0as we already do for the police and armed forces\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0Labour has chosen the unions over patients,\u00a0\u00bb she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The NHS is coping well with the doctors’ strike in England, the head of the health service says. In a letter to health managers, NHS England chief executive Sir Jim Mackey said while it was still early days in the six-day strike, which began on Tuesday, the NHS was in \u00ab\u00a0as good a place as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9988\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}