Around 15,000 operations to be cancelled by the NHS next week because of the national strike by nurses
10 December 2022, 01:02
Around 15,000 operations are going to be cancelled by the NHS next week because of the national strike by nurses.
Hospitals have been told to let patients know as soon as possible if their operation is being cancelled or postponed.
The Telegraph reported that 15,000 operations are set to be cancelled including hip and knee replacements, cataracts, hernia repairs and heart procedures.
NHS England faces a waiting list of 7.2million people waiting for a procedure, including 400,000 of them who have already waited an entire year with health problems.
It comes after unions announced that 100,000 nurses from 76 hospital trusts will be striking next week.
To cope with the demand, the Prime Minister announced plans for the army to step in during his visit to an RAF base in Lincolnshire.
Despite some anger from military leaders, Rishi Sunak said: “I had the opportunity to say thank you to some of our Armed Forces personnel because many of them are going to miss Christmas to help us deal with the disruption from strikes, whether that’s manning border posts or driving ambulances, we all owe them an enormous debt of gratitude.”
The police already refused to stand in to drive ambulances saying they cannot keep responding to ongoing demands.
In what will be known as a winter of chaos, next week will feature four days of strikes from nurses as well as railway staff.
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As Christmas approaches, ambulance staff will also begin industrial action and border force are planning eight days of action that will also disrupt flights over the holiday season.
The public are being warned that on Thursday when the nurses strike an ambulance will only be sent out if there is an immediate risk to life – this category includes any injuries which are life-threatening, sepsis, heart-attacks and serious allergic reactions but does not include strokes.
When asked on Friday what Rishi was going to do about the disruption, he said: "What I’m not going to do is ask ordinary families up and down the country to pay an extra £1,000 a year to meet the pay demands on the union bosses. That wouldn’t be right and it wouldn’t be fair.”
