Doctors' strike: York Hospital chiefs warn of 'significant impact'

And NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said there were “real concerns of a raised risk to safety”.

Training doctors in England will stage their longest walkout between April 11 and 15.

The timing of the strike and its duration present a “range of challenges over and above the disruption seen from the industrial action in recent months”, NHS Providers said.

The 96-hour strike is likely to be the most disruptive in the history of the NHS due to the length of the strike and the fact that doctors have chosen to take action directly after a long Bank Holiday weekend – which traditionally causes disruption to the NHS even without the prospect of strike action.

The walkout also coincides with the Easter school holidays, which means that many consultant staff who provided cover during the first round of strikes will be unable to do so again due to pre-planned holidays and childcare commitments.

A spokesperson for York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs York Hospital, said: “Locally, our junior doctors make up 49 per cent of our medical workforce and as such the strike action will have a significant impact.

"This is four days of strikes coming immediately after a four-day bank holiday weekend. The days leading into and immediately after bank holiday weekends are already challenging for the NHS, and these strikes also come at a time when high levels of staff are on annual leave due to school Easter holidays.

“Urgent and emergency treatment remains our priority and patients can continue to access care from our emergency departments, maternity services and critical services for inpatients.

“It is even more important people choose services wisely over this period so that care is available to patients who need it most."

York Hospital

The spokesperson said this included using 111 online as the first port of call for health needs and only using 999 if it was a life-threatening emergency.

They added: “GP practices will continue to be open during the junior doctors’ strike and pharmacists can also help and are experts in medicines for minor health concerns.

"They can offer clinical advice and over-the-counter medicines for a range of minor illnesses, such as coughs, colds, sore throats, tummy trouble and aches and pains.

“We will contact patients if their appointment needs to be rescheduled due to strike action, either by text or phone. If you have not been contacted, please attend your appointment as planned.”

Last month’s 72-hour walk out led to about 175,000 hospital appointments and operations being postponed nationally.

Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, said: “Yet again we are seeing colleagues pull out all the stops to minimise disruption and ensure patient safety.

“But the challenges here are unprecedented."

Dr Latifa Patel, workforce lead for the British Medical Association, said: “No-one understands better than us, the doctors who care for them, that patients are getting a substandard experience 365 days a year from an overstretched and understaffed NHS.

“In this brutal work environment, patient care is at risk every day due to chronic staff shortages and years of underinvestment in equipment and services.

“Given that as a starting point, during the previous strike days, NHS England and (hospital) trusts in England worked together to assess hospitals’ readiness for the planned industrial action.

READ MORE: Harrogate NHS boss says patients will be safe during doctors' strike

“We have a jointly agreed system with NHS England in place to ensure patient safety in the event of extreme and unforeseen circumstances.

“We met with NHS England four times per day during the last strikes to monitor the situation, but there were no requests for a derogation – a temporary stoppage of the industrial action – to be made. The same proven arrangements will be in place this time.

“Junior doctors have no desire to strike, they been pushed into this action by long-term Government inaction and now want to bring this dispute to an end as quickly as possible.

“We hope the Health Secretary will come to the table immediately with a meaningful pay offer so doctors can avoid more strike action and instead return to doing what they want to be doing: caring for their patients.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Four days of strikes by junior doctors will risk patient safety and cause further disruption and postponed treatment.

“The BMA’s demand for a 35 per cent pay rise is totally unreasonable and unaffordable.

“We urge them to come to the table with a realistic approach so we can find a way forward, as we have done with other health unions, which balances fairly rewarding junior doctors for their hard work with meeting the Prime Minister’s ambition to halve inflation.

“We are working with NHS England to put in place contingency plans to protect patient safety."