Patients urged not to put off seeking care as doctors set to strike over pay including at Northampton General Hospital
Patients are being urged not to put off seeking care as resident doctors – including at Northampton General Hospital (NGH) – are set to strike in the coming days.
Members of the British Medical Association (BMA) union will strike from 7am on Friday July 25 until 7am on Wednesday July 30, which will include resident doctors at NGH who are part of the union.
Doctors are walking out mainly over pay, as the BMA says “more than a fifth” of doctor’s pay has “eroded since 2008”. There are also non-pay issues that the union wants to discuss including student loan forgiveness.
BMA resident doctors committee co-chairs Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt said: "We have always said that no doctor wants to strike and all it would take to avoid it is a credible path to pay restoration offered by the Government. We came to talks in good faith, keen to explore real solutions to the problems facing resident doctors today.
“Unfortunately, we did not receive an offer that would meet the scale of those challenges.
"While we were happy to discuss non-pay issues that affect doctors’ finances we have always been upfront that this is at its core a pay dispute. The simplest and most direct means of restoring the more than a fifth of our pay that has eroded since 2008 is to raise our pay. While we were keen to discuss other items, it was made very clear by the Government that this obvious course of action was going to remain off the table.”
The statement added that the union has seen a lot of “no’s” from the government so far and that talks have not made a “breakthrough”, so strikes must go ahead. The union did, however, say they are glad to have met the Secretary of State in a “constructive spirit” and that their “door remains open”.
During previous strikes in 2023 and 2024, a lot of non-urgent care was cancelled to ensure emergency departments were staff properly. However, during this round of strikes, the NHS has asked hospital bosses to keep routine operations going to the “fullest extent possible” and only reschedule appointments and other activity in “exceptional circumstances”.
Patients are being urged to attend planned appointments, unless contacted by the trust, and not to put off seeking care, should they need it.
Professor Meghana Pandit, NHS England National Medical Director, said: “There is no doubt this industrial action will take a toll on patients and NHS staff, and it is disappointing it is going ahead.
“While it will mean some appointments won’t be able to go ahead as planned, we are doing all we can to limit this, and patients should continue to use NHS services in the usual way.
“The public should dial 999 in an emergency, and otherwise use 111 online, your local pharmacist or GP, and patients should attend NHS appointments unless told otherwise.”
Northampton General Hospital has been contacted for comment.
Daventry MP Stuart Andrew was announced as the shadow Health Secretary earlier this week. The Conservative MP has criticised how the government has handled the strikes and pay talks.