Patients 'may not be safe' during upcoming doctors’ strike, BMA warns

The NHS decision not to postpone all routine appointments will leave doctors “spread too thinly” to provide urgent care, the union said.

A five-day walkout of resident doctors, formerly junior doctors, is scheduled to start next week and could cause significant upheaval to the NHS in England.

The last round of strikes, which also included walkouts by other health workers, came at an estimated cost of £1.5 billion to the NHS in England.

Read more: Striking doctors willing to ‘discuss all options’ to halt five-day walkout

Some 1.5 million appointments, procedures and operations were postponed as a result of the stoppages.

NHS England’s chief executive, Sir Jim Mackey, has called on hospital leaders not to cancel routine appointments during the strikes, a different approach from previous walkouts.

During the 2024 strike, a “Christmas Day” approach was adopted, meaning only urgent treatments and A&E visits took place.

On Monday, BMA leaders called on Mackey to reverse his decision, warning it would “put patients at risk” and spread doctors “too thinly.”

The BMA said: “Your decision to instruct hospitals to run non-urgent planned care stretches safe staffing far too thinly, and risks not only patient safety in urgent and emergency situations, but in planned care too.

“It also appears designed to lead to far more late, same-day cancellations for patients. Consultants cannot safely provide elective care and cover for residents at the same time.

“We therefore strongly urge you to reconsider your instructions to hospitals, which should be preparing now to postpone non-urgent planned activity in order to provide a safe urgent and emergency service in keeping with the levels of staff available.”

Professor Meghana Pandit, NHS England’s co-national medical director for secondary care, countered: “The safest thing for patients is for the NHS to maintain as much urgent and planned care as possible during strikes, and we would encourage the BMA to work with us constructively to achieve this in the event industrial action goes ahead.”

The previous strikes ended last September when resident doctor members voted to accept a Government pay deal worth 22.3% on average over two years.

The 2025/26 pay deal saw resident doctors given a 4% increase plus £750 “on a consolidated basis”, working out as an average rise of 5.4%.

Government officials said these two increases equate to a 28.9% pay rise.

But the BMA said resident doctors need 29.2% to reverse “pay erosion” since 2008/09.

Earlier this month, the union announced that resident doctors in England would strike for five days from 7am on July 25.