The junior doctor strikes later this month will cause “significant disruption” to the NHS, its chief executive said on Sunday.
Speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England warned further strike action will have an even greater impact on services.
“The hard truth is - it is patients that are paying the price for the fact that all sides have failed to reach a resolution,” she said.
Overall, Ms Pritchard warned that continuous strike action cannot become the norm for the NHS, adding: “So there is no doubt that the sooner that we can bring this to a resolution, the better for patients.
“Because we’ve already had well over half a million appointments rescheduled as a consequence of industrial action.
“As a junior manager, I was there ringing patients having to tell them that their appointments were being changed.
“It’s a heart-breaking thing to do and I know how frustrating that is for patients. So the sooner that we can bring this to an end, the better.
“We can’t let it become business as usual for the NHS.”
Junior doctors said they had decided to strike because they feel “overworked and undervalued”.
They want a new pay increase of 35 per cent to make up for inflation in the past 15 years, which they said has cut their earnings by 26 per cent - the independent pay review body is expected to recommend a six per cent pay rise for health service workers next month.
But Health Secretary Steve Barclay has branded the pay demand “unaffordable”, with both sides remaining deadlocked.
The Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA) union is striking over junior doctors being “taken for granted”.
HCSA president Dr Naru Narayanan said: “Junior doctors have held together patient care amid a spiralling staffing crisis. In return for this huge emotional, mental and physical toll, they’ve been subjected to a decade of real-terms pay cuts totalling over 26 per cent. Enough is enough.
“Our NHS is in an intolerable situation and junior doctors will not be taken for granted any more. They are taking decisive action for their patients and for their own wellbeing.
“Falling pay, increasing workloads and dangerous levels of understaffing have driven carers across the NHS to strike. The blame for this lies solely with a complacent government, seemingly content to let patient care suffer.”
