London NHS hospitals are under "extraordinary pressure" due to a "high volume of sick people", a senior medic warned as junior doctors began their 26th day of strike action.
Junior doctor members of the British Medical Association (BMA) began a 72-hour walkout from 7am in hospitals across England in a bitter dispute over pay.
Hospital bosses in the capital said the strikes came at "the worst possible time" with rising demand for emergency services during the festive period and a spike in seasonal viruses, such as flu and norovirus.
Dr Rebecca Suckling, site chief medical officer at Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, told the Standard that a spike in "very unwell" patients had put the trust's three hospitals in south west London under "extraordinary pressure" in the days leading up to the strike.
She warned that waiting times to be seen for patients who were not severely unwell would be "significantly longer than usual".
"This is not just because of the numbers coming to our emergency departments, but the sheer volume of very sick people we are seeing," she added.
“We are here for people when they genuinely need us. But on behalf of the nurses, doctors, and everyone else working so hard in our hospitals, I would urge people who are unwell over the Christmas period to consider whether our emergency departments are the best place to come."
More than 1.1 million appointments have already been cancelled in the past year due to industrial action in the NHS.
Junior doctors are demanding a 35 per cent pay rise to correct a real-terms fall in income since 2008.
Emergency departments at south east London hospitals were already "extremely busy" before the beginning of industrial action, NHS bosses warned, with pressure expected to rise during the walkout.
In a joint statement, Professor Ian Abbs, Professor Clive Kay and Ben Travis, the chief executives of Guy's and St Thomas', King’s College Hospital, and Lewisham and Greenwich, said: “We are really disappointed that talks between the government and BMA have broken down. These strikes have been announced at one of the worst times of the year for us – before Christmas and just after Christmas.
“We are working hard to ensure patient safety is maintained and emergency services will be there for those that need them. But we would really appeal for people to use urgent and emergency services appropriately during the strike period to help our teams prioritise those patients who need care most urgently.
The strike will end at 7am on December 23, but will be followed by another six-day walkout beginning on January 3 - the longest in NHS history.
Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride told GB News that the strike was "deeply disappointing".
“We are going to go into a period now when the NHS is under its most acute pressure as temperatures drop over that Christmas period.
“This is going to be a very difficult time, it’s (the strike) unnecessary.
“It really is a vital time now for this almost one remaining part of the public sector, the outlier if you like, to come back to the table and do this deal.”
Health Secretary Victoria Atkins urged the BMA to call off the strikes and resume talks.
“But we know that despite these measures and the hard work of NHS staff, these strikes can cause significant disruption to patients and add extra pressure on the NHS,” she said.
“My door remains open should the BMA Junior Doctors Committee cancel these disruptive strikes and come back to the negotiating table as we were making good progress.”
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said the strike could further jeopardise efforts to bring down NHS waiting lists, one of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's key five pledges.
He said: “There is no doubt that these strikes are coming at the worst possible time, with the NHS entering the most difficult period of the year. As the level of winter viruses continues to ramp up in hospitals and more staff go off sick the last thing leaders wanted was for junior doctors to stage more walk outs."
In a joint statement, BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs, Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, said the two sides had been "close to a solution" to the dispute but had still not received a "final offer" from the Government.
The BMA announced the strike earlier this month after talks between junior doctors and the Government broke down.
Consultant doctors from the BMA in England have reached a deal with the Government, with members currently voting whether or not to accept the deal.
Specialist, associate specialist and specialty doctors (SAS) in England have also come to an agreement, which is being put to members.
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the Standard: “This is a disaster for the NHS. Winter is always a challenging period with extra pressures. These are strikes that the NHS can't afford we've lost a million appointments and operations to delays and cancellations already and £1billion has been spent on the costs of strike action. So this is the worst of all worlds. Bad for patients and also bad value for taxpayers.
“I've been very honest about the fact that a Labour government would not be able to deliver the 35 per cent pay demand the junior doctors are making overnight. The journey to fair pay is going to be exactly that a journey, not an event.
“The public finances are tight, but I would absolutely be sitting down with junior doctors to discuss pay and also some of the wider grievances about training, about placements, about supervision and about the way they're treated and the working practices environments they're subjected to.”
