The Daily Observer London Desk: Reporter- John Furner
Almost 140,000 ops and appointments have been cancelled because of NHS strikes this winter.
Hospitals and patients have already endured over a dozen walk-outs since the chaos began at the start of December.
That toll includes the biggest ever strike to rock the ailing health service on February 6, involving tens of thousands of nurses and paramedics.
Nurses continued their protests for better pay the next day as part of a 48-hour row.
Meanwhile, physiotherapists took to the picket lines today. And ambulance staff will strike again tomorrow, rounding off the busiest week of NHS walk-outs so far.
Almost 140,000 ops and appointments have been cancelled because of NHS strikes this winter. That toll includes the biggest ever strike to rock the ailing health service on February 6, involving tens of thousands of nurses and paramedics
NHS nurses from the Royal College of Nursing form a picket line as they strike for safe staffing levels, fair pay and working conditions outside St Thomas Hospital, London on February 6
Some 49,038 operations and appointments in total were rescheduled, following strike action on Monday and Tuesday. Pictured above, RCN members on the picket line outside St Thomas’ Hospital in London on February 6
Startling NHS figures laying bare the knock-on effects of the action so far have revealed that more than a third of all operations cancelled occurred on Monday and Tuesday alone.
Some 49,038 operations and appointments in total were rescheduled across the two days.
Of this, 7,303 were inpatient and day case elective procedures — which can include routine procedures like hip and knee replacements, which require an overnight stay in hospital.
The majority (34,122) were outpatient appointments. This usually involves X-rays and minor procedures.
The rest of the cancellations were for community services appointments and mental health and learning disability appointments, NHS England said.
However, the true disruption from this week’s NHS strikes will be higher than 49,000 because not every location taking part logged data.
And it doesn’t take into account today’s strike by members of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, or tomorrow’s by ambulance workers.
It only looks at Monday and Tuesday, organised by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), GMB and Unite.
Unions have warned that action will continue ‘for as long as it takes’, until the Government ‘does the decent thing’.
But ministers claimed patients’ lives would be put at risk due to delayed care and slower ambulance response times.
Earlier this week, health leaders warned of ‘significant disruption’ due to the scale of the action on February 6, in particular.
It was predicted up to 40,000 nurses, paramedics and emergency call handlers would walk out together.
But just 16,000 workers were actually absent from work because of strike action, NHS England data shows.
Most disruption was logged in the North East and Yorkshire, where 5,739 workers were reported as absent across the two days.
Even more NHS strikes are on the way this week, with another round of industrial action penciled in for ambulance workers tomorrow
