The doctors union has rejected NHS figures showing that less than a third of resident doctors joined strike action in England last week and 93% of planned operations and procedures went ahead.
NHS England said it maintained care for an estimated 10,000 more patients during the latest doctors’ strike compared with last year’s, while the health secretary, Wes Streeting, seized on the figures and said it was time to “move past the cycle of disruption”.
But the British Medical Association (BMA) rejected the figures, saying complex work schedules and doctors taking leave made it “almost impossible to know” how many had joined the action.
The number that took part in the five-day walkout was down by 7.5% on the previous round of industrial action, according to an early analysis of management information. NHS England said it would publish the fuller data in due course.
Resident doctors, previously known as junior doctors, went on strike demanding a 29% pay rise and have been embroiled in an increasingly acrimonious war of words with the government, which has refused to negotiate on pay.
Streeting said this weekend: “A majority of resident doctors didn’t vote for strike action and data shows that less than a third of residents took part. I want to thank those resident doctors who went to work for their commitment to their patients and to our shared mission to rebuild the NHS.
“I want to end this unnecessary dispute and I will be urging the BMA to work with the government in good faith in our shared endeavour to improve the working lives of resident doctors, rather than pursuing more reckless strike action.”
But the BMA said: “NHS England’s claim that the majority of England’s 77,000 resident doctors chose to ‘join the NHS-wide effort to keep the services open’ requires a huge stretch of the imagination, given it is almost impossible to know the exact number of residents working on any given day because of complex work patterns, on-call schedules and the strike spread across a weekend.
“Added to that, in July many doctors are using up their remaining annual leave before their new posts start and would therefore not show up as striking. We look forward to seeing hard and fast data on NHS England’s claim.
“The strike could have been averted, as could any future ones, if Mr Streeting had come, and will come, to the table with a credible offer that resident doctors in England can accept.”
Resident doctors make up about half of all doctors in the NHS and have up to eight years’ experience working in hospitals or three in general practice.
Some NHS trusts experienced minimal disruption from the latest strike. The West Hertfordshire teaching hospitals trust carried out 98% of its planned activity while the University College London hospitals trust and Northumbria healthcare foundation trust both carried out 95%.
James Mackey, the NHS chief executive, said that care was still disrupted for thousands of people as a result of the strike and that any repeat would be “unacceptable”. He urged the resident doctors committee to “get back to the negotiating table”.
NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts, said the walkout took a toll and that trusts were concerned about potential wider industrial action in the health service.
Saffron Cordery, the NHS Providers deputy chief executive, said: “This dispute can’t drag on. The union says resident doctors want this to be their last strike. With talks due to resume, let’s hope so. Bringing disruptive strikes – where the only people being punished are patients – to an end must be a priority.
“We’re concerned, as trusts worked hard to minimise disruption and to keep patients safe during the resident doctors’ strike, by the threat of wider industrial action in the NHS.”