Total of 1,481 appointments at West Suffolk Hospital and Newmarket Community Hospital rescheduled as a result of BMA junior doctors’ strike

New data has revealed that more than 1,000 appointments at a Suffolk hospital trust had to be rescheduled due to the largest strike in NHS history.

The industrial action carried out by junior doctors from the British Medical Association (BMA), ran for six days – at a time when the NHS is already dealing with winter pressures.

NHS data shows that 1,481 outpatient appointments were rescheduled by the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (WSNFT) during the industrial action which ended on Tuesday, January 9.

The trust which runs West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds and Newmarket Community Hospital, also had to reschedule a total of 70 inpatient operations and procedures, during the course of the strike.

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director said: “The longest strike in NHS history has led to unprecedented disruption for patients and their families, and while staff have planned extensively and worked tirelessly to keep patients safe, it comes once again with an enormous cost.

“That cost is clear in these figures – likely to be even higher in reality – with more than 113,000 appointments postponed (nationally) at a time when services are already under huge pressure from rising flu and covid cases and we are seeing a huge demand for care.”

Professor Powis continued: “Medical leaders and frontline staff are telling us they are very concerned about the coming weeks as the cold weather bites and more people may need hospitalisation.

“This puts an incredible strain on staff who have been covering striking colleagues as we continue to navigate one of the most difficult times of year.

“Colleagues across the NHS will now be doing everything they can to make up for lost time as we continue to make progress on addressing the elective backlog and ensure patients get the care they need.”

According to the latest NHS reports on January 2, the day before the BMA strike started, 46 patients had to wait longer than 15 minutes to be transferred from an ambulance to accident and emergency.

A total of 38 patients had to wait more than 30 minutes and 28 patients had to wait more than an hour.

On Sunday, January 7, during the industrial action, 48 patients had to wait longer than 15 minutes.

A total of 18 patients had to wait more than 30 minutes and eight for more than an hour.

Nicola Cottington, chief operating officer for the WSNFT, said: “We know that this time of year means there is an increased demand for our services, and I am sorry to all our patients that experience long waits.

“To minimise this as much as possible, we diligently prepare every year to ensure our patients receive the right care, in the right place, and at the right time.

“We have continued to develop our urgent and emergency care services to help prevent admissions and reduce waiting times in our emergency department.

“These initiatives include utilising technology to help patients return home sooner when well, sending our community teams to attend non-critical ambulance calls, establishing a dedicated hub to care for our most frail patients and improving the efficiency of the patient journey throughout their stay in hospital.”

A spokeswoman from the East of England Ambulance Service said crews are handing over patients at hospitals – quicker than they did last winter.

The spokeswoman continued: “Dedicated ambulance staff in emergency departments work closely with hospital staff on handovers so crews can get back on the road.

“Our response times are also far better than last winter. We ask the public to support the NHS by using 999 only in an emergency.”