Industrial action by consultants follows nearly 30,000 cancelled appointments in London during junior doctors’ strike

The NHS in London has begun a difficult 48 hours as senior medics walk out as part of planned industrial action.

Consultant doctors and hospital-based dentists will be taking strike action from 7am on Thursday 20 July until 7am on Saturday 22 July.

This follows the five-day junior doctors strike, which ran from Thursday 13 July and ended on Tuesday 18 July.  

During the strike period consultants will only provide staffing levels to cover emergency care. This is a marked difference from strike action taken by other clinical groups because no other doctors can cover for consultants. Any planned care delivered by junior doctors or other healthcare professionals will need to be rescheduled. This means a significant amount of planned care will be affected. 

The latest industrial action by junior doctors had an average of 3,372 staff off each day and led to 29,907 acute appointments being cancelled in London between 13 July and 18 July. Across England 103,323 appointments did not take place due to industrial action during the five-day period. We expect a large number of appointments to be cancelled during the consultants’ strike.

People who need care should still come forward to access the care they need in the usual way – only using 999 and A&E in life-threatening emergencies and using NHS 111 online and other services for non-urgent health needs. Pharmacies and GPs are unaffected by the strikes so patients can still get appointments and health advice.  

Dr Chris Streather, Medical Director for the NHS in London said:  

“This planned industrial action comes only two days after the junior doctors strike and Londoners will feel its impact significantly.

“Consultants will stop seeing patients and will also not be able to supervise other medics. This will lead to planned appointments will junior doctors cancelled and a “Christmas Day” service only attending to emergency patients.

“Those with life-threatening conditions should always call 999 but we ask Londoners to contact NHS 111 and use their pharmacy and GP practice as a first point of call for non-urgent care.

“If you haven’t been contacted or informed that your planned appointment has been postponed, please attend as normal.”