Data reveals impact of five-day resident doctors' strike
Early data has revealed that 93% of planned operations, tests and procedures went ahead during the five-day resident doctors' strike across England.
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In previous walkouts, the majority of non-urgent care was postponed.
Fewer than a third of resident doctors, previously known as junior doctors, chose to join the strike, which took place from July 25 to July 30.
The NHS maintained care for an estimated 10,000 more patients during the latest doctors’ strike compared with last year’s industrial action.
The number was down by 7.5% (1,243) on the previous round of industrial action in July last year, according to the early analysis of management information collected by NHS England.
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NHS chief executive Sir James Mackey said the strikes did still impact thousands of people.
"While this is really good news for the vast majority of patients whose treatment went ahead, we should still acknowledge that there were thousands whose care was disrupted," he said.
"NHS staff will continue to work hard to ensure patients can get their rescheduled care as soon as possible, but for those patients – and for all our staff who had to work extra shifts or with different responsibilities – a repeat of this action will be unacceptable.
"So, I would urge the Resident Doctors Committee to get back to the negotiating table and work with us and the Government on the meaningful improvements we can make to resident doctors’ working lives."
The British Medical Association (BMA) said it recognised the efforts that senior doctors and healthcare workers made during the strike to provide care to patients, but it disputed the figure set out by the NHS.
It said: "NHS England’s claim that the majority of England’s 77,000 resident doctors chose to ‘join the NHS-wide effort to keep the services open’ requires a huge stretch of the imagination, given it is almost impossible to know the exact number of residents working on any given day because of complex work patterns, on-call schedules and the strike spread across a weekend.
"Added to that, in July many doctors are using up their remaining annual leave before their new posts start and would therefore not show up as striking.
"We look forward to seeing hard and fast data on NHS England’s claim.
"The strike could have been averted, as could any future ones, if Mr Streeting had come, and will come, to the table with a credible offer that resident doctors in England can accept."
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: "I want to again thank staff from across the NHS who have put in an incredible shift to make sure that the NHS was open to as many patients as possible over the five days of unnecessary strike action."
Earlier this week, the Health Secretary said he "never left" the negotiating table, and that he is willing to meet with the resident doctors committee of the British Medical Association (BMA) to resume talks in their ongoing dispute over pay and working conditions.
However, he added "it should be clear to the BMA by now that it will lose a war with this Government".