Over 5,000 operations canceled as England junior doctors launch strike

Thousands of junior doctors in England launched their fourth industrial action on Wednesday over a long-running contract dispute, leaving more than 5,100 operations postponed.

During the 48-hour strike, only emergency care will be provided.

"We deeply regret any disruption this action will cause to patients, but it is because we believe this contract would be bad for the delivery of patient care in the long term that we are taking this action," said Johann Malawana, junior doctor committee chair of BMA, a trade union of British doctors.

This is the second 48-hour strike carried out by BMA junior doctor members, and a third 48-hour strike will be held on April 26 and 27, which will for the first time provide no emergency care.

The major sticking point of the series of disputes is focus on weekend pay and extra payments for Saturday service. As no agreement has been reached after several talks in the last months, the British Health Department decided to impose a contract for the junior doctors in the summer, which was rejected by BMA.

"By imposing a contract that junior doctors have no confidence in and refusing to re-enter talks with the BMA, the government has left us with no choice," Malawana added.

A Department of Health spokeswoman denounced the strikes as "irresponsible and disproportionate," noting that about 25,000 operations have been canceled since junior doctors launched their first walkout.

"If the BMA had agreed to negotiate on Saturday pay, as they promised to do through Acas (an employment disputes resolving organization) in November, we'd have a negotiated agreement by now," she added.

NHS England expressed regret for the disruption patients will face and thousands of planned procedures will have to be rearranged.

"We've already seen that a 48-hour strike puts considerably more pressure on the NHS and it's deeply regrettable that thousands of patients are still facing disruption because of this recurring action," said Anne Rainsberry, national incident director for NHS England.

"As always, the safety and care of patients is our number one priority and everything possible is being done to make sure patients will still be able to access urgent and emergency services," she said. Endit