‘I’m utterly lost’: Patients’ anger over doctors strike cancellations

10 hours ago Share Save Lucy Clarke-Billings BBC News Emily Atkinson BBC News Share Save

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The resident doctors strike in England has begun after a dispute over pay between the government and the British Medical Association (BMA). Thousands of doctors are walking out over five days, with Health Secretary Wes Streeting insisting that disruption will be kept to a minimum. But several NHS patients have told the BBC they fear their conditions could become worse after delays to scheduled procedures, while some have also expressed sympathy over the concerns the doctors are raising.

Peter Plant, 58, of Tamworth, who has kidney cancer, said his surgery to remove the organ on Friday was cancelled on Thursday morning. The operation has been rescheduled for 20 August, but he fears the delay could be a “death sentence”. “Resident doctors do not care that delaying operations like mine are very likely a death sentence,” he said. “I’m absolutely angry and frustrated. It is not just about me, it’s about our whole family. “You try and gear yourself up for it and then it’s utter deflation.” Mr Plant said he and his family had been living in “limbo” and that he felt “utterly lost”. “Wes Streeting says he has told hospitals to carry on as normal and they’re clearly not,” he added. Official figures have not yet been released on the impact of the strike. Some hospitals are reporting more than 80% of their non-urgent work is still being carried out. Previous walkouts have led to mass cancellations of operations, appointments and treatments: more than one million were cancelled during resident doctor strikes in March 2023 and routine care was cut by half at some hospitals.

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‘My three-year-old needs surgery now’

Hassnain Shahid, from Bradford, said his three-year-old daughter urgently needed lung surgery but it had been indefinitely postponed – despite medical warnings about the risks of delay. “It’s been an emotional rollercoaster and it’s very frustrating for us,” Mr Shahid said. Mr Shahid’s daughter has Congenital Pulmonary Airway Malformation (CPAM), a rare lung condition. He said consultants told him surgery was urgent and that it was important it took place in the summer when there was less chance his daughter could catch a cold. “Now we’ve been told the surgery has been cancelled and they have no availability – not even in September,” he said. “They were the ones that said she needed to have it done. “I understand why the doctors are striking, but when you take this path and you go to university you know how much you’re going to earn – if you’re not happy with the pay, look at an alternative career.”

Mr Shahid’s daughter has had her lung surgery postponed due to the strike action

Repeated delays to surgery

Sarah, a patient from the north-west of England, said she was due to have a hysterectomy – an operation to remove her uterus – on Monday but it had been cancelled for a second time. “They don’t have a rescheduled date for me at this time,” she said. “It’s very hard when you have been mentally preparing yourself for major surgery, especially as I was first told that I needed one in November 2024.” Andrew Mundy, 58, from Lincoln, expressed fears that repeated delays to his tendon surgery could leave him permanently injured. He injured his knee in early February and was given an initial date for surgery at the end of May, which he said was cancelled because the consultant was on holiday. The surgery was rearranged for Friday but was cancelled because of the strike, he said. “I am furious and aware that every delay in surgery will make the chances of a successful repair even less likely,” he said. “It is not fair that I may never recover from this injury due to delays in treatment. “It’s frustrating because [the NHS] say that they are not cancelling stuff and things are running as normal, but they are cancelling stuff.” Michele, from Somerset, has been waiting three years for spinal surgery. She has been told her appointment, which had been scheduled for Thursday, has been cancelled, which she believes is down to the strikes. Michele said she suffers “constant” and “relentless” nerve pain down the left side of her body. “I feel I’ve been let down, I feel like I’m not worth it. It’s knocked me,” she said. Michele said she had taken sick leave from work for more than a fortnight, having already taken a step back from her leadership role to work part-time from home due to the pain. “It’s got to the point so I can’t even do that now. It’s really affecting my life,” she added.

Lorien Overson Michael Overson has been waiting three years for a knee operation

Private hospitals are doing one in 10 of all planned NHS operations amid patients’ frustration at long delays in NHS care and political pressure to cut waiting times.

New figures seen by the Guardian prompted campaigners to warn that the NHS is “allowing the private sector to make a killing” and is seeing more and more of its services “cannibalised” because years of underinvestment mean it can no longer provide care quickly.

The NHS in England outsourced 10% of all elective procedures such as hip and knee replacements to private operators for the first time during 2023, new figures showed. That proportion has shot up by almost 50% since before Covid, the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN) said.

Staffing problems and pressure to reduce the 7.6m-strong care backlog are increasingly forcing health service trusts to send patients on their waiting lists for private treatment.

The rise in NHS work done by private operators has prompted fears that more and more of the health service is being left weakened and patients’ access to vital care is increasingly a “two-tier system” dictated by their wealth.

The unprecedented transfer of NHS patients is happening at the same time as a dramatic increase in patients using either their own savings or private medical insurance to pay for treatment in the independent sector that the NHS cannot provide fast enough.

Private operators carried out 1.67m procedures on NHS patients in 2023 – the most ever – which the health service paid for as part of its “referral to treatment” (RTT) scheme. That was 29% more than the 1.3m they did during 2019, the IHPN’s latest internal briefing on activity levels showed.

Private hospitals performed 442,925 trauma and orthopaedic operations, 440,776 eye surgeries, mainly cataract removals, and 165,270 dermatology procedures – all far more than in 2019. And they undertook the largest number of NHS procedures ever in a single month last November – 85,460.

“It’s alarming to see that private hospitals now do 10% of all planned NHS operations. This is turning the clock back to before the NHS was founded in 1948,” said Dr John Puntis, a retired paediatrician and co-chair of campaign group Keep Our NHS Public.

“Moving work into the relatively small and parasitic private sector is a policy decision aimed at undermining the NHS and growing a two-tier system. The NHS is being increasingly cannibalised by the private health industry.”

But the IHPN hit back and stressed that its expansion was helping NHS patients get speedier care. It made clear that, with the demand for care rising and long waits likely to continue for the foreseeable future, it hopes private operators will diagnose and treat even more NHS patients in the next few years, and thus relieve the pressure on an NHS many doctors and experts say is overwhelmed.

“There is much more that the independent sector could do, which would enable timely access to treatment and tests, and give NHS patients more choice over when and where they are treated,” said David Hare, the IHPN’s chief executive.

The IHPN’s analysis shows that January 2023 was the first month in which private hospitals undertook more than a tenth of all the NHS’s elective – non-urgent – activity on its behalf. It was also at least 10% in February, March, September, October and November. Although it fell to 9.8% last December, that was a sharp increase on the 6.5% in December 2019.

In some parts of England, local NHS integrated care boards – regional groupings of trusts – find it so hard to get to grips with their waiting lists that they are outsourcing as many as one in five of all elective procedures to private firms, the Health Service Journal revealed last month.

Between last September and November, the figure was 20% in both the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB, and the Bath and North East Somerset, and Swindon and Wiltshire ICB; it was 18% in the Sussex ICB and 17% in both the West Yorkshire and Mid and South Essex ICBs.

The cost of building new hospitals and the NHS’s lack of capital funding mean some trusts are now building new facilities in collaboration with private firms to treat both NHS and private patients, said Tim Read, the director of research at the specialist private care data firm Laing Buisson.

He pointed to the opening in January of the Harborne hospital in Birmingham, a partnership between healthcare giant HCA and the University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) NHS trust. Under the deal, UHB has been allocated two of the eight floors, giving it 72 extra beds, and some of its top specialist doctors provide much of the private care in HCA’s larger share of the new hospital.

Similarly, the Royal Surrey NHS trust plans to open a new cancer centre in Guildford in conjunction with Genesis Cancer Care, which already operates 14 diagnostic and treatment centres

David Rowland, director of the Centre for Health and the Public Interest thinktank, said he was concerned by the growing outsourcing of NHS because of the “systemic patient safety risks” in the private sector. About 6,000 patients a year have to be transferred from a private to an NHS hospital when complications occur, he said, citing government figures.

But the IHPN pointed out that private hospitals receive positive feedback. The Care Quality Commission, England’s health and care watchdog, rates 92% of private hospitals as “good” or “outstanding” compared with just 52% of NHS hospitals.

The government is encouraging the NHS to make as much use as possible of private healthcare capacity, and Labour’s shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, has made clear that he sees outsourcing as benefiting both patients and the NHS.

NHS England defended its increasingly close relationship with private hospitals. A spokesperson cited its efforts to tackle the backlog, especially of people waiting unusually long times for their care.

The spokesperson added: “As part of this recovery, services are working closely with private providers to maximise use of all available capacity for patients, increasing usage of the independent sector by more than 50% since 2021 – from 65,000 appointments and procedures a week to more than 100,000 currently.”

Junior Doctors Rally for Pay Restoration in London

More than 60,000 NHS appointments were scrapped – including those for cancer – were lost in just five days of industrial action last year, new figures reveal as the Health Secretary has urged doctors to reconsider strike action.The new data, seen by the Sunday Express reveals the devastating scale of disruption caused by the last walkout in July 2024, when over 63,813 NHS appointments and procedures were cancelled in just five days. Most of these included biopsies, blood tests and X-rays – essential for the timely diagnosis of potentially deadly conditions like cancer.

Last night senior sources close to the health secretary warned the same potentially devastating delays and cancellations could be repeated, or even exceeded, if further action goes ahead.

The June–July industrial action by the British Medical Association’s resident doctors – previously known as junior doctors — also saw a huge rise in costs for locum and consultant fees as doctors cashed in on extra pay for out of hours shift work.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the Sunday Express: “Strikes are the last thing the NHS needs right now, the last thing Resident Doctors need, and certainly the last thing that patients need.“Strike action should always be a last resort. So I’d say to the BMA – the government’s changed and the policies have changed. Your tactics need to change now. Work with us. There’s no need for strikes.”“These strikes are disastrous,” warned Professor Carl Heneghan, a leading clinical epidemiologist and urgent care GP based at Oxford University.

He added: “Intertwined in these figures are cancellations for some of the most serious conditions such as cancer. A four-week delay in diagnosis and treatment increases mortality for seven of the major cancers. A delayed test could mean the disease spreads before the patient is even rebooked.

““Strike action must be an absolute last resort. Doctors have a duty to ensure patients do not suffer because of their decisions. This crisis is forcing desperate people to pay for care – and some are being left behind altogether.”

A landmark BMJ study backs up his concerns showing every four-week delay in cancer treatment raises the risk of death by around 10%, with even short delays dramatically reducing patient survival.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has already ruled out meeting BMA demands for a 29% pay rise – on top of the 22% increase given last year. But the BMA insists strike action will continue unless the government caves.

Meanwhile, public support is waning. Just 39% of people back doctor strikes, down from 52% last summer, according to YouGov polling.

“This isn’t just about waiting a bit longer for care,” said one senior NHS consultant. “These are cancer checks, vital heart tests, mental health reviews. For some people, a delayed diagnosis is a death sentence.”

Co-National Medical Director for NHS England Meghana Pandit told the Sunday Express: “We know from the experience of last year that industrial action comes at a very real cost to patients, and the rest of the workforce, in terms of cancelled appointments and longer working hours to cover rotas.

“While it is of course the right of resident doctors to take such action, this should always be a last resort and staff and patients will rightly expect everyone does all they can to try to avoid industrial action.”

Junior doctors calling for 29 percent pay hike

The new figures from NHS England show that the Midlands saw 8,111 appointments axed, while the North West lost 8,943 and the South East nearly 7,972. Manchester, Leeds, Oxford, and Liverpool were among the worst-affected hospital trusts. NHS insiders stress that these are not numbers on a spreadsheet – each one represents a patient left in pain or worry. Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT One senior NHS adviser told the Sunday Express: “Strikes will undoubtedly worsen the 7.4 million waiting list for operations or procedures. We will end up with people dying unnecessarily, and others having to live longer with hip pain, disability, disease or needing vital operations like cataract surgery. Many are coming towards the end of their lives and will be spending a significant amount of time immobile, in pain or blind.” The warning comes despite evidence the NHS has begun turning a corner. Since Labour entered office, waiting lists have fallen by over 200,000 – five times faster than the same period last year. Ministers say that with cooperation from medical staff, and £26 billion in extra funding, the NHS has delivered over 3.6 million extra appointments, beating key manifesto pledges. Health Secretary Wes Streeting has taken a firm stance on pay demands, refusing to meet the BMA’s request for a 29 percent hike. This is despite junior doctors already receiving average pay rises of nearly 29 percent since 2022, including the most recent 5.4 percent uplift — the highest public sector pay award this year. Government sources say the BMA’s leadership initially praised this deal as “generous” and are now being urged to honour it. Mr Streeting said: “We won’t cave to unrealistic demands that take us backwards. Patients have waited long enough. They don’t want to see more cancelled ops and delays to treatment just as the NHS begins to recover.” A Department of Health spokesperson added: “This government wants to work with resident doctors to deliver the change the NHS is crying out for. But that means putting patients first.” The figures come alongside data showing a record 7.6 million adults in the UK now hold private medical insurance (PMI) – up from 6.7 million in 2020. Among 35-54 year olds, nearly 1 in 5 now have a private healthcare cover. Healthcare cash plans, including for dental treatment, have also surged from 4 million to 5.1 million holders in just four years.

Strike led to 60,000 lost appointments in 5 days

BMA resident doctors committee co-chairs Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt said: “Patients are all too aware how much the NHS relies on its resident doctors. With the announcement of last week’s ballot, many will understandably be concerned about how future strike action might affect them getting care, but it’s important to stress that strike action is not inevitable and can be avoided. “The Government has the power to honour its previous commitment to map out and restore doctors’ pay, avoiding strikes entirely. We’re confident that patients will recognise that the value of doctors has not diminished since 2008, but that working conditions and pay have. “Wes Streeting must now step forward with a solution that allows us to stay with our patients, off the picket lines, and remain in this country rather than being driven to seek work abroad where doctors’ unique skills and expertise are more appropriately valued. As the population ages and care becomes more complex, we need to make sure we retain doctors in the UK.”

A cancer patient was left distraught after her urgent operation this week was cancelled due to NHS strikes.

Monika Schiffer, from Bournemouth, was diagnosed with breast cancer in January this year and endured six rounds of chemotherapy to reduce the size of the tumours.

The 51-year-old was scheduled to undergo a double mastectomy — surgery to remove both breasts — yesterday.

But last month, just days after it was announced consultants and junior doctors would be taking to the picket lines in a coordinated walkout, the op was cancelled.

She told MailOnline today: ‘I think it’s a scandal that the NHS is allowed to strike. I would ban all emergency services — police, fire brigade and the NHS — [from taking industrial action]. They play with people’s lives.

Monika Schiffer was diagnosed with breast cancer on both sides earlier this year in January and endured six rounds of chemotherapy to reduce the size of the tumours. The 51-year-old from Bournemouth had been scheduled to undergo a double mastectomy on September 20. But last month, just days after it was announced consultants and junior doctors would be taking to the picket lines in a coordinated walkout, the surgery was cancelled

Consultants in England have taken to the picket lines on four separate days so far this summer, while junior doctors have staged 19 days of strike action this year. Both will return to the picket lines together on October, 2, 3 and 4. Radiographers are also set to join medics by walking out for 24 hours from 8am on October 3. The strike days also coincide with Rishi Sunak’s first Tory party conference as leader and prime minister

Ms Schiffer was diagnosed with breast cancer at the end of January.

Around 55,000 women and 400 men in the UK are told they have the cancer every year. Three-quarters survive for 10 years to more after it is spotted.

She underwent six rounds of chemotherapy — therapy to kill cancer cells — from March to August, as her tumours were inoperable due to their size.

Ms Schiffer said: ‘Neither my original surgeon or the one who operated me was happy about the strikes. They were brilliant.’

After her chemotherapy treatment ended however, her initial surgeon warned that she could see her operation cancelled and if it was ‘the next available appointment will be in weeks’, she said.

Read more: Mother fears NHS doctors strikes could mean daughter loses eyesight after vital surgery is postponed Advertisement

‘When I was then told the operation was cancelled my heart sank.

‘I was terrified that the cancer would start to grow and spread again.

‘I was confused, scared and angry at the same time. My mental health suffered.’

She was later offered an operation slot on September 8 at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital with a different surgeon and decided to take it.

While Ms Schiffer is now recovering following her surgery, there are concerns the results of her histology report — which provides details about her cancer based on the tissue removed during surgery — may also be delayed due to strike action.

She said: ‘The surgeon said it normally takes two weeks but this time it will take three to four weeks, or God knows how long. All due to the NHS strike.’

Ms Schiffer added: ‘When you live with cancer in your body you can’t wait weeks.

‘It could mean the difference between life or death.

‘I consider myself extremely lucky that a slot was offered for me for an earlier appointment.

‘Yesterday would have been my initial surgery date. I am feeling incredibly lucky because I don’t have to worry anymore.

‘But many haven’t been this lucky. And they might gravely suffer from the consequences of this action.’

For the first time in the health service’s 75-year history, junior and senior medics yesterday took coordinated strike action, leaving patients with ‘Christmas Day’ cover in hospitals, with emergency units staffed and a basic level of cover on wards.

Junior doctor strikes will continue until 7am on Saturday. But further joint action by both groups of medics are planned for October 2, 3 and 4.

Prior to this week’s walkouts, junior doctors had staged 19 days of strike action this year, with consultants taking to the picket lines on four separate days.

England’s backlog, for procedures like hip and knee replacements, now stands at 7.6million, official figures revealed last week. It means roughly one in seven people across the country are currently stuck in the system awaiting care. More than 380,000 patients have gone a year without being treated, often in agony

The BBC Freedom of Information request found a consultant at University Hospitals Plymouth was paid more than £3,000 to cover a 12-and-a-half-hour night shift, supposed to be covered by a junior doctor. The same hospital paid nearly £1.8m for cover — £1.59m to consultants — during the first three rounds of junior doctor industrial action alone. Pictured, NHS consultants and junior doctors outside University College hospital in London today

NHS bosses warned that the combined walkouts put patients at ‘the highest level of risk in living memory’, and affected ‘many more groups of patients who haven’t been disrupted by previous strikes’.

Many routine hospital appointments and treatments, including cancer care, have been postponed as a result of industrial action.

Senior leaders expect the official total of operations and appointments cancelled during strikes to exceed 1million, with 100,000 cancellations expected this week alone.

However, they have warned that the true picture is far worse, with few appointments with medics even being scheduled for strike days.

But patients have been urged to still attend appointments if they have not been told it is cancelled — as some doctors are still working.

Read more: Now ANOTHER group of NHS medics could strike: Specialist doctors balloted on whether they want to stage walkouts Advertisement

Sir Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, confirmed yesterday that nearly 900,000 procedures have been disrupted due to industrial action and the figure ‘will certainly rise today and over the next few days’.

The BMA argues that medics have seen their pay eroded by 35 per cent over the last 15 years.

As a result, junior doctors have called for a full 35 per cent pay uplift, while consultants set their pay demand 11 per cent.

BMA junior doctor committee co-chairs Dr Rob Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi yesterday said: ‘Junior doctors in England do not want to strike but we will, and we will do so for as long as it takes for this Government to get back round the table and give us a credible offer to bring an end to the strikes.’

They added: ‘The Prime Minister’s latest offer is still a real terms pay cut, amounting to a doctor being paid just over £15 per hour when starting work and still sees junior doctors around 26 per cent worse off than in 2008.’

In July, consultants and junior doctors were given a six per cent pay rise under No. 10’s pay offer.

At the time, Rishi Sunak said the deal, announced in July for 2023/24, was the Government’s ‘final offer’.

Nurses, paramedics and other NHS staff received a five per cent rise and ‘NHS backlog bonus’.

The BMA however immediately rejected the rise, vowing to crack on with strike action.

Yesterday, the union also announced that specialist, associate specialist and specialty (SAS) doctors will hold an indicative ballot for industrial action.

These doctors work alongside junior doctors and consultants in hospitals, but some also work in the community.

Flora White, 51, was set to have her fourth round of chemotherapy on Thursday at Kettering General Hospital in Northamptonshire but it was delayed until October 2 after her appointment with her oncologist was cancelled, leaving her with extra “worry and stress”.

Ms White, from Northamptonshire, was told her appointment to discuss her blood samples with her oncologist ahead of her treatment session was cancelled “because of the industrial action” by NHS consultants and junior doctors on Wednesday.

The mother-of-two said she was told in March the cancer in her bowel area is “very aggressive” and she only has “months to live” following the spread of the disease to her pelvis and uterus.

Ms White started chemotherapy in August and is having six rounds of chemotherapy every fortnight to shrink the size of the tumour before it can be surgically removed.

Flora White from Northamptonshire was diagnosed with cancer for the second time in March this year (Flora White/PA)

Becoming emotional, Ms White told the PA news agency: “I’m angry and upset.

“I got told in March it was very aggressive and it’s spread and I only had months to live.

“Because of what I’ve been through, it’s already scary and they won’t operate until chemo shrinks the tumour.”

Ms White said she was first diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2021 and given the all-clear after the tumour was removed along with her large intestine.

In March this year, Ms White said she was diagnosed with cancer for a second time after a tumour formed on the join between the start of where her large intestine used to be and her small intestine.

She said she is due to have chemotherapy every fortnight but the appointment with her oncologist was axed on Wednesday “because of the industrial action” which then delayed her treatment.

Ms White said: “I had my bloods done for nothing this Monday and I’m having to repeat them next Monday for a catch up with the oncologist next Wednesday.

“Because they’ve cancelled so many people, they can’t rearrange my chemo for next Thursday.

“I’ve now got to wait ’til the following Monday (October 2).

“So that’s eight working days, which is just a bit annoying.”

Ms White’s appointment with her oncologist was cancelled on Wednesday which then delayed her chemotherapy treatment (Flora White/PA)

She said: “I speak to my friends and they thought, ‘We support the strikes but we didn’t think it was affecting cancer patients’, and I say, ‘Well, you’re wrong. Neither did I but clearly it is’.”

She added: “I got the all-clear in May 2022 (only) for it to come back early this year.

“In 2021, they removed my large intestine, and whatever was left of it, they attached that to the small bowel, to the small intestine.

“You can live with just your small (intestine), so they removed my large one because I think half of it was wrecked with the tumour.

“(The cancer) came back on the join and it’s spread to my pelvis and my uterus now, so I’m just riddled down there with it.

“It’s just annoying that they’re delaying my chemo – it’s bad enough (with) what I’ve been through.”

Discussing the recent strike in the NHS, which saw consultants and junior doctors walk out in a joint action on Wednesday, Ms White said: “It’s our health at the end of the day.”

She said cancer patients and patients suffering with serious conditions “shouldn’t be affected” by industrial action.

“It’s hard to deal with as it is, let alone the extra worry and stress,” she said.

“Your treatment being cancelled and delayed, they don’t understand how they’re affecting some people.”

A spokesperson for the Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust told PA: “Due to the ongoing industrial action we had to postpone a number of appointments and operations, based on individual clinical decisions.

“We are truly sorry to anyone affected and are working to reschedule appointments as soon as possible.”