The “domino effect” of ongoing strikes in the NHS could “break the relationship” between staff and senior managers, health leaders have warned.
NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said that managers feel “deep concern” over the long-term impact of the pay row that has involved junior doctors, nurses and paramedics in the past 8 months.
Junior doctor members of the British Medical Association (BMA) will stage a five-day walkout from 7am on Thursday, the longest in NHS history. They will be followed by consultants, who will strike on July 20 and 21, with services limited to “Christmas Day cover”.
Then radiographers will strike at 43 NHS trusts between 8am on July 25 and 8am on July 27.
Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said the strikes were “fraying the fabric of the NHS”.
“The disruption for many thousands of patients and the potential harm of delaying their treatment is a huge and growing risk for the NHS to manage. Trusts will hardly have time to draw breath after a five-day walkout by junior doctors before consultants strike for two days, followed by a two-day strike by radiographers.
“The domino effect of repeated waves of industrial action is eroding the fundamental relationship between trust leaders and their staff.”
Ministers in England have refused to enter talks with the BMA while strikes are scheduled, though conciliation service Acas has said that it is “ready and prepared to help” break the deadlock.
Ms Cordery added: “Trust leaders understand the strength of feeling among striking staff, who they value and work with for patients every day, and why they are taking action.
“Trusts will continue to do everything they can to limit disruption and keep patients safe but that's getting harder and more expensive with every strike as the cost of hiring cover grows, and with staff dissatisfaction increasing as disputes remain unresolved.
“Eight consecutive months of industrial action across the NHS are taking their toll not just on patients, with more than 651,000 routine procedures and appointments forced to be rescheduled, but on already overstretched services – hampering efforts to cut waiting lists.”
Ms Cordery called for eleventh hour talks to avert the coming strike action.
“We urge the government and the unions to find a way forward and prevent thousands more patients paying the price of these disputes.”
Junior doctors have staged three rounds of industrial action in a bitter pay dispute, including a 96-hour strike last month. The union is seeking a 35 per cent pay rise to reverse what they calculate to be a 26 per cent cut in pay since 2008.
