Older patients ‘will be hit harder than most’ by doctors strike

Older patients will be “hit harder than most” by strike action by resident doctors in England, a charity has warned.

Up to half of the medical workforce in England could stop work at 7am on Wednesday and not return for five days as resident doctors stage a walkout over pay and jobs.

Hopes that the strike could be averted at the last minute were dashed on Monday when members of the British Medical Association (BMA) rejected a fresh offer from the Government.

While hospital bosses have been ordered to maintain as much pre-planned work as possible during the industrial action, Age UK warned that there would be “inevitable” cancellations and delays.

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: “Hospitals will do their best to keep services going but there will inevitably be cancellations and delays and as the majority of users are older people, they will be hit harder than most.

“The postponement of a minor operation or a clinic appointment with a consultant to discuss test results and next steps may look ‘non-urgent’ on paper, but that’s not how it will feel to an older person who is anxious and in pain, who has already waited months and who does not have time on their side.”

Mike Prentice, the NHS national director for emergency planning, had urged leaders in a memo to focus on reducing hospital bed occupancy “ahead of, during and after the industrial action, as we go into the peak holiday period”.

“These strikes will be followed by two full working days before Christmas (and the bank holidays that follow) where huge effort will be needed to safely discharge patients and get people home in time for Christmas,” he said.

Ms Abrahams said: “While it has been suggested that the strike could lead to older people being stuck in hospital over Christmas when well enough to leave, the bigger risk may be that some are discharged prematurely, without the right package of care at home, as hospitals struggle to free up beds.”

Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, told The Daily Telegraph: “Older people are already the most likely to be admitted to hospital with flu, and many will now face the very real prospect of being stuck in hospital over Christmas, and potentially well beyond it, because there simply won’t be enough staff to safely discharge them.”

Former BMA member Lord Winston, who quit the union in protest over the strikes, said on Monday that he thought people would die as a result.

Dr Shivam Sharma, deputy chairman of the BMA’s resident doctors committee, told LBC Radio: “I would completely disagree with that, and I want to be evidence-based – we know that senior colleagues, consultants will be covering this strike action, and we know that studies have shown that mortality rates do not increase, they stay the same, if not decrease during strike action because we have those experienced senior consultants that are covering.”

The Government accused the union of staging the strike at a time that would “inflict as much damage as they can” on the NHS amid rising levels of flu in hospitals.

Health minister Stephen Kinnock said the Government had offered for the union to extend its mandate and stage the strike in January instead of December, telling Times Radio: “For reasons best known to themselves, they have insisted on going ahead with this strike action right in the heart of the Christmas season, and that I think is dangerous, reckless and irresponsible.”

He said: “Most reasonable, fair-minded people would be looking at this and saying: ‘Well, if I got a 29% pay rise, I would not be coming back a few months later asking for 26% more’.

“It’s just not reasonable. It’s not really living in the real world.

“And I just fear that the leadership of the BMA are just hell-bent on going on to these strikes and frankly trying to inflict as much damage as they can on the NHS, and that is just simply the wrong thing to do.”

The five-day strike, which starts at 7am on Wednesday, will be the 14th by resident doctors since 2023.

It comes amid warnings of a “super flu” sweeping the nation, with flu cases in hospitals in England at a record level for this time of year.