DOCTORS’ strikes have added nearly half a million operations to the NHS waiting list, the health service estimates.
NHS England officials reckon the impact has extended the backlog by 430,000.
AlamyJunior doctors’ strikes have had the biggest impact on the NHS[/caption]
It is currently at 7.6million after peaking at 7.8m in September.
Ministers have clashed with unions after blaming the strikes for patient misery and a failure to meet Rishi Sunak’s pledge to cut waiting lists last year.
More than 1.4m appointments have been cancelled or postponed by hospital strikes since they first began with nurses in December 2022.
The vast majority are due to junior doctors’ walkouts, which are still ongoing.
Ministers blame strikes for failure to bust backlog
NHS England chairman, Richard Meddings, said industrial action has “had a particular impact on our ambition to bring down the longest waits”.
Hospitals were told to treat all patients on a list for 18 months or more by April 2023 but have still not managed to, with 14,000 at 78 weeks or more in January.
Health service bean-counters calculated the 430,000 figure from treatments called off during strikes and the days immediately before and after, the Health Service Journal reported.
The biggest impact was felt in a four-day strike last April when an estimated 56,000 people were prevented from completing their treatment.
The impact per day has decreased in more recent strikes as hospitals have got better at coping.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: “These statistics reflect the damaging impact ongoing strikes are having on patient care.
“Despite this, we continue to make progress on waiting lists, which have fallen for the past four months.
“We again urge the BMA Junior Doctors’ Committee to come back to the table with reasonable expectations so we can find a way forward for patients and our NHS.”
A BMA spokesperson said: “The failures of this Government, year on year, have made it impossible for the NHS to treat patients on time.
“It is disingenuous for NHS England to blame a failure to meet targets on industrial action when waiting lists were growing and targets were being missed before any strike action began.
“If the Health Minister would come back to the table and negotiate a workable and reasonable deal with junior doctors, we could see an end to strike action.”
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