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06
Aug
Harrogate hospital reveals impact of resident doctors strike
Harrogate District Hospital has revealed that around 150 appointments were rescheduled due to the resident doctors strike which ended last week.
Resident doctors — formerly known as junior doctors — walked out for five days of industrial action on July 25 in a dispute over pay.
At the time, Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust warned the strike would “likely” affect the trust and see some appointments and elective surgery needing to be cancelled.
Now, the trust has told the Stray Ferret that some 150 outpatient appointments were rescheduled due to the industrial action. No operations were cancelled.
Meanwhile, the hospital confirmed that no agency staff were hired to cover for striking doctors.
A spokesperson for the trust said:
Thanks to the many colleagues at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust who meticulously planned and prepared for the industrial action, which was called at short notice at the peak of the summer holidays, we were able to minimise the disruption to our patients and services.
We hope that the British Medical Association and government will get back around the negotiating table to avert any further industrial action but as ever, we continue to plan for any further periods of industrial action to ensure we can continue to run safe and effective clinical services.
Resident doctors took part in 11 rounds of strike action between 2023 and 2024.
Members of the British Medical Association’s resident doctors' committee reached an agreement on pay after the Labour government was elected in 2024, with resident doctors voting to endorse the deal in September of that year.
But resident doctors re-entered formal dispute with the government on April 9, and, according to the BMA, a recommendation made in a report by the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Renumeration to uplift doctors’ pay by 4% only “intensified their dissatisfaction”.
Following the industrial action, which ended on July 30, the BMA and government agreed to restart talks over the pay dispute.
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