More than 175,000 appointments and interventions in the residents’ strike postponed

The shifts, revealed in data released by NHS England, had to be made to protect emergency, critical care and emergency care for patients.

NHS Medical Director Professor Sir Stephen Powis said the strike was “of unprecedented scale and had a greater impact than any other industrial action we have seen combined this winter”.

Junior doctor leaders are set to meet Health Secretary Steve Barclay next week to try to resolve their pay dispute that sparked the strike.

Sir Stephen said: “Despite the huge effort NHS staff have made to keep patients safe and minimize disruption, this strike was of unprecedented scale and had a greater impact than any other industrial action we have taken so far this winter have seen together.

“Over 175,000 appointments and procedures have been postponed to protect emergency, critical care and emergency care for patients, which will inevitably impact efforts to address the Covid backlog.”

The British Medical Association has exchanged letters with the Government following yesterday’s announcement of a new offer for other NHS workers.

The union is calling for a “reinstatement of pay” for young doctors, who may have many years of experience and make up around 45% of the medical workforce.

According to them, their wages have fallen by 26% in real terms since 2008/09 and to reverse this would require a wage increase of 35.3%.

dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr. Robert Laurenson, the co-chairs of BMA’s Junior Doctors Committee, said in a joint statement: “Every day junior doctors despair as they see surgeries canceled and treatments postponed for the millions on the waiting lists because our health services are in crisis .

“But postponements as a result of the strike could have been avoided if the health minister had come to the table and negotiated an amicable solution with us before strikes broke out.

“The NHS had announced more than two months in advance that if the vote were successful we would be on strike for 72 hours; The Government has had no doubts about our campaign to restore full salaries for over six months and this is confirmed by the number of young doctors in England who have taken part in the industrial action.”

They described young doctors as “keen to see their salaries restored and further disruption to patient care avoided,” adding that Mr Barclay “lies in his gift of offering a deal so young doctors can earn what.” they are worth and avoid further strikes, act and give patients the care they deserve”.

Mr Barclay has urged would-be doctors to follow the lead of other health unions, who said on Thursday they would recommend a wage deal to NHS workers, including nurses and ambulance workers.

He said: “We have offered the trainee doctors the same terms that have been accepted by the other unions and I hope that the trainee doctors will respond to that.”