Junior doctors’ strikes are stopping elderly patients from seeking the help they need, a charity has warned.
Age UK said it was ‘deeply concerned’ over the risk to older people’s health caused by the longest ever NHS walkout.
Timing the strikes to coincide with the busiest time of the year will make it ‘difficult to guarantee safe and effective care for everyone who needs it’, it said.
Urging a return to negotiations, Paul Farmer, the charity’s chief executive, said: ‘We are very concerned older people who may be feeling unwell are put off seeking the care they need due to the strikes.
‘We have increasingly heard from older people, already struggling to access the help they need, now worried what ongoing strikes mean for them and their families.’
Age UK said it was ‘deeply concerned’ over the risk to older people’s health caused by the longest ever NHS walkout (Stock Image)
One in three operations is set to be cancelled across England this week to mitigate the six-day strike, due to end at 7am on Tuesday.
Officials have warned it will continue to have a ‘serious impact in the weeks after’ while the NHS struggles with the pressures from flu, Covid and staff sickness.
Strike action has seen 1.2million appointments and operations disrupted since it began in December 2022. The British Medical Association (BMA) union wants a 35 per cent pay rise for junior doctors, which it says would restore their real earnings to 2008 levels.
But the Government says this is unaffordable, offering a 3 per cent pay increase, on top of an average 8.8 per cent rise for 2023-24.
Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, of the BMA junior doctors committee, said an anticipated ‘final offer’ had not come.
In a statement, they said: ‘All we need is a credible offer we can put to members and we can call off these strikes.’ Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said: ‘I urge the BMA junior doctors committee to call off their strikes and come back to the negotiating table.’