Hundreds of operations and appointments cancelled in Wigan as a result of junior doctors strike

More than 1,250 operations and appointments had to be cancelled at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh (WWL) NHS Foundation Trust due to the unprecedented walkout by members of the British Medical Association (BMA) from April 11 to 15.

A total of 157 elective procedures (either surgery or other medical intervention) had to be rescheduled as a result of the four-day strike.

But the bulk of the cancellations were in outpatient appointments. In total, 1,115 were rescheduled as a result of industrial action.

The daily average of WWL staff absent from work as a result of industrial action over the four-day period was 148.

Across England as a whole, more than 195,000 operations and appointments had to be cancelled at acute trusts over the four days due to the walkout.

The number of cancellations eclipses the 175,000 called off during the previous, shorter, junior doctors’ strike in March, but is lower than the 285,000 cancellations the government had been anticipating.

At its peak, at least 27,361 staff were on strike - although some NHS trusts did not record data, so the number is likely to be higher.

NHS national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said: “Today’s figures lay bare the colossal impact of industrial action on planned care in the NHS. Each of the 195,000 appointments postponed has an impact on the lives of individuals and their families and creates further pressure on services and on a tired workforce – and this is likely to be an underestimate of the impact as some areas provisionally avoided scheduling appointments for these strike days.

“Our staff now have an immense amount of work to catch up on hundreds of thousands of appointments, all while continuing to make progress on tackling the backlog of people who have been waiting the longest for treatment. We have now seen nearly half a million appointments rescheduled over the last five months, and with each strike, it becomes harder. While our staff are doing all they possibly can to manage the disruption, it is becoming increasingly difficult and the impact on patients and staff will unfortunately continue to worsen.”

Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson, BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs, said: "Junior doctors know all too well the frustration of patients waiting too long for care, and with a waiting list of 7.2 million in England, we are facing difficult conversations with them every single day.

“These millions of patients are not in this position because of strikes though. Persistent under-resourcing of the health service and under-valuing staff – exacerbated by a pandemic – mean we simply don’t have the workforce and capacity to provide the high-quality and timely care that patients need and deserve.”

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation (which represents managers), said: “NHS leaders will not be surprised by the number of appointments and operations postponed due to the recent strike action. With over 201,000 appointments and operations postponed from last week’s action, this takes the total number of cancellations across all strikes so far to well over half a million. This strike action is going on much longer than expected and will have long-term consequences for patients.”