
Nottingham City Hospital's striking doctor can be 'called off' picket line to treat sick babies
The British Medical Association (BMA) has agreed an exemption with the hospital regarding the neonatal intensive care unit.
A five-day walkout by resident doctors, formerly junior doctors, in England began on Friday, with members of the BMA at picket lines across the country.
The BMA has argued that real-terms pay has fallen by around 20% since 2008, and is pushing for full 'pay restoration'.
The union took out national newspaper adverts on Friday, saying it wanted to 'make clear that while a newly qualified doctor's assistant is taking home over £24 per hour, a newly qualified doctor with years of medical school experience is on just £18.62 per hour'.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has condemned the walkout, branding it "reckless" and "irresponsible", and said the government would not allow the BMA to 'hold the country to ransom'.
He insisted the government is doing everything it can to minimise patient harm as thousands of doctors go on strike over pay.
Following concerns over the safety and care of very sick babies in Nottingham City Hospital, an agreement has been reached allowing a resident doctor to leave the picket if they are called.
In a statement on social media, the BMA said: "We have agreed a derogation at City Hospital, Nottingham for one resident doctor to support NICU on Saturday and Sunday.
"If contacted we advise resident doctors to return to work. Thank you for your support for taking industrial action."
ITV News Central has approached Nottingham University Hospitals Trust for a response.
The trust is currently at the centre of the largest maternity inquiry in the history of the NHS, with over 2,500 cases of neonatal deaths being examined by senior midwife Donna Ockenden.
It's also being investigated by Nottinghamshire Police for potential offences of corporate manslaughter, following the deaths and serious injuries related to maternity care.
Following the announcement of a criminal investigation, Nick Carver, Chair at NUH and Anthony May, Chief Executive, put out a joint statement.
It said: "It is absolutely right that we take organisational accountability where we have failed women, families and babies.
"We are deeply sorry for the pain and suffering caused. We know that for many families this harm and suffering will be lifelong.
"Since joining the Board, we have emphasised the importance of openness, transparency and accountability in our leadership and decision-making. We recognise that there is more to do.
"We are fully committed to the ongoing police investigation and the Independent Review of Maternity Services, led by Donna Ockenden.
"We would like to reassure the public that we are determined to improve our maternity services.
'We know how important the police investigation and independent review are for the affected families, the Trust and our local communities. We hope that affected families receive the answers that they deserve.'
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Times
2 hours ago
- Times
BMA accused of risking lives by blocking emergency strike exemptions
The NHS has accused the British Medical Association (BMA) of 'risking patient safety' by refusing emergency requests to allow striking doctors to cross picket lines and return to work. Since a five-day junior doctor strike began on Friday morning, the BMA has rejected 18 requests from NHS hospitals for doctors to break the strike to stop patients coming to harm, including in cancer care. The exemptions, known as 'derogations', are requested by senior NHS medics in exceptional circumstances to protect patient safety, such as if there is a major accident. They have to be agreed on a case-by-case basis by a committee of BMA leaders, including Dr Tom Dolphin, the union's chairman, who specifies whether a doctor can go back to a particular ward. The BMA said that NHS England made 47 derogation requests up until Sunday evening for 125 doctors, but that it had only agreed to nine of these requests. The remaining requests have been refused, withdrawn or are pending. Thousands of resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, are out on strike until 7am on Wednesday as they pursue a 29 per cent pay rise. Hospitals were instructed to cancel as few procedures and appointments as they can safely manage, to minimise disruption for patients and prevent harmful delays to routine care, meaning some have kept 96 per cent of appointments running. As part of this tougher approach to the BMA, Jim Mackey, the NHS chief executive, also encouraged hospitals to seek derogations in more circumstances. However, the BMA has said it will not approve the requests if they are for 'non-urgent care' and that the record number of derogation requests reflects a 'dangerous lack of planning' by NHS hospitals. An NHS spokesman said: 'The NHS is continuing to work hard to maintain more services than in previous rounds of industrial action, and early indications show the plan is working with the vast majority of planned care going ahead. 'Derogation requests for resident doctors to work in exceptional circumstances are being made by the most senior clinical teams on the ground, and delays or refusals by the British Medical Association questions their integrity and risks patient safety.' Requests rejected by the BMA include for a resident doctor to carry out biopsies on men with suspected prostate cancer at Milton Keynes Hospital. The doctor subsequently voluntarily decided to break the strike to return to work, and Wes Streeting, the health secretary, praised their 'bravery' and said it 'ensured these men got the care they deserve'. The BMA has granted requests, including for a doctor to return to work on the neonatal ward at Nottingham City Hospital. Three BMA members were also allowed to work an A&E night shift at the Northern General in Sheffield, which the union said was 'due to the failure to train consultants' on a new electronic patient record system. In another case, King's College Hospital in London had a derogation agreed for its radiology department, but the BMA then revoked it and said the hospital had made a 'false submission'. King's said its request was made in good faith. • Striking doctor called off picket line to treat 'very sick' babies Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt, the BMA's resident doctors committee co-chairs said: 'Patient safety remains our highest priority during strike action. We rely on NHS England to ensure that safety by planning services in line with the levels of staffing available. If a critical event or an emergency occurs, we work with them to make sure staff can be called back into work on a voluntary basis. This agreement — called a national derogations process — is there strictly to be used should a safety-critical, urgent event occur. It is deeply irresponsible for hospitals to use it to facilitate non-urgent care or cover for poor planning on their part. 'Unfortunately, the number of derogation requests during this strike round has greatly exceeded that in previous rounds, far more even than NHSE [NHS England] are publicly acknowledging. We therefore have to question why NHSE has failed to plan properly. So far, we have had to revoke two derogations where it was proven that the hospital had either been misinformed about their own staffing, or had deliberately misled us. 'We need NHS England to be honest about their failure to plan appropriately which has led to Trusts relying on the BMA to bail them out. It is imperative that this does not happen again for any future strike action — which we hope will not be necessary.' • Kemi Badenoch says Tories would ban doctors from going on strike Streeting has thanked staff working to minimise disruption and insisted the country 'will not be held to ransom by the leadership of the BMA'. He added: 'I particularly want to thank resident doctors who didn't take part in these strikes and went into work to help their colleagues and patients. 'I've been on calls with operational leaders and frontline clinicians, and I've been inspired by the stories of what NHS staff are doing to pick up the slack left by striking resident doctors. I've also spoken with patients directly affected by their actions.'


The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
NHS chiefs and BMA in row over patient safety during doctors' strike
NHS bosses and the British Medical Association are accusing each other of endangering patients' during the ongoing resident doctors' strike. Their war of words centres on 'derogations', local agreements under which doctors who have joined the strike can cross picket lines to provide clinical care in a hospital. Thousands of resident – formerly junior – doctors in England are nearing the end of a five-day stoppage, part of their campaign for a 29% pay rise, which ends at 7am on Wednesday. The escalation of the resident doctors' pay dispute comes as it emerged that nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have voted to reject their 3.6% pay award for this year. Their decision, revealed in a survey run by the Royal College of Nursing seeking members' views on what the union had called a 'grotesque' award, makes it more likely that the NHS in different parts of the UK could face industrial action over pay by various groups of staff later this year. Well-placed sources say the results of the union's online survey of 345,000 members in the three countries, which is due later this week, will show a 'clear' rejection of the 3.6% uplift. The BMA and NHS England have become embroiled in a disagreement over the circumstances in which the doctors' union agrees to a request by senior doctors locally to grant a 'derogation'. NHS sources claim the BMA is taking an 'increasingly hardline approach' to such requests. In one case the BMA refused a plea for a resident doctor – one below the level of consultant – to return to Milton Keynes university hospital to help staff a prostate cancer biopsy service. The union declined the request because it judged that there was no urgent clinical need for the doctor to return to work, in line with its policy that derogations should be for emergency situations only. NHS England says the BMA had by Sunday rejected 18 requests for derogations during the strike – the 12th involving training-grade doctors since 2023 – and granted nine. An NHS spokesperson said: 'Derogation requests for resident doctors to work in exceptional circumstances are being made by the most senior clinical teams on the ground, and delays or refusals by the British Medical Association questions their integrity and risks patient safety.' However, the BMA told members via social media on Sunday that it had received 47 requests and as a result agreed that 16 resident doctors, from a total of 125 the NHS asked for, could break the strike and return to work. For example, over the weekend a doctor went back in to help staff the neonatal intensive care unit at Nottingham city hospital while three others provided cover overnight at the Northern general hospital in Sheffield. The union claimed NHS chiefs were asking for too many derogations because they had failed to ensure that some hospitals had enough medics on duty to cover for striking resident colleagues. 'Unfortunately, often due to poor timing of requests … there have been some situations where patients' safety has been at risk, with not enough doctors to ensure emergency care, leading to last-minute derogations,' it said in a social media post. 'These hospitals have a lot to answer for, to the resident doctors, and the patients they have failed.' Senior NHS officials say that fewer resident doctors have joined the ongoing strike compared with the 11 walkouts then junior doctors staged in 2023 and 2024 and also that more planned hospital activity – operations and outpatient appointments – had gone ahead this time round. One well-placed source estimated that whereas about 80% of eligible doctors took part in the previous strikes, the figure appears to have dropped to about 60% in this stoppage. 'Participation is lower this time. Some resident doctors are less comfortable going on strike this time round, after the 22% pay rise over two years they got last year. 'There's less sympathy among other NHS staff for resident doctors this time. And there's frustration about how quickly they went on strike so soon after their significant pay rise.' The BMA will try to increase the pressure on Wes Streeting, the health secretary, on Tuesday by picketing King George hospital in Ilford, the main hospital that provides care to people in his Ilford North constituency.


The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
Resident doctors' focus on pay is doing untold damage to the NHS
As a retired doctor, now 80, I feel sad as I watch our resident doctors struggle to exert pressure on the government to increase their pay packet (Wes Streeting 'thought he had struck deal to halt strike by doctors', 27 July). This behaviour will have far-reaching consequences, which are unlikely to be beneficial either to the doctors or the country. Clearly, the action will cause delays in treatment and probably unnecessary morbidity and mortality. This will make the NHS vulnerable to pressure from those who favour its abolition. Already, it has alienated large sections of the population whose support the doctors have always been able to count on previously. But the British Medical Association has assured resident doctors that it is necessary for them to put their livelihood ahead of the wellbeing of the public, to ensure that the NHS survives into the future. This is a false promise. The commitment of resident doctors and nurses has always been integral to the success of the NHS, and there is no doubt that this has been central to the incredible efficiency it has demonstrated since its inception. It was conceived as a non-commercial organisation. There have always been areas of the globe where doctors could earn more than at home. But for most, the attractions of the NHS outweighed pecuniary advantages available elsewhere. I fear that in setting their sights purely on increased remuneration, today's resident doctors are leading the NHS towards a change in its entire ethos, the ethos that made it a success. The BMA should concentrate on improving doctors' working conditions, as Wes Streeting has offered BehrmanCookham Dean, Berkshire On Sunday I cancelled my subscription to the British Medical Association after being a member for 39 years, in disgust at its insistence on going ahead with the strike of resident doctors in pursuit of a 29% pay rise, despite having had a 22% rise over the previous two years. It is hard to know what is the correct rate of pay for resident doctors, but no other group in the health service is seeking such a rise in pay, and the decision to strike seems to ignore patients, as well as all the other staff alongside whom they work. I believe that improvement in the working conditions of doctors and all other groups should be sought through discussions, as the government has offered, not strikes. Whatever the appropriate pay should be for resident doctors, they should be glad that they don't get the equivalent of the £2 per hour we were paid in the 1980s for each of the 60 hours a week we had to be in the hospital over and above our basic 40-hour David CameronBelhaven, East Lothian I do have a lot of sympathy for our resident doctors, even though I was on call on Sunday as a consultant. It is not just that pay has been eroded, but also that the cost of becoming a doctor has gone up, as has the cost of living in general. Unlike in most other higher-paid professions, half of doctors are women. The cost of childcare has gone up significantly since my day. There is no more cheap hospital accommodation. And the student loan system is misogynistic in principle, the interest accumulating during maternity leave. Women earn less during their careers but end up paying back a lot more for their student loans as a group. And because of the forced itinerant lifestyle, most doctors get their foot on the housing ladder quite late, having to pay increasingly unaffordable GemmekeEastleigh, Hampshire Wes Streeting rightly points out that 90% of resident doctors voted for strike action, with a 55% turnout (Resident doctors' strike undermines union movement, says Wes Streeting, 25 July). That means just under 50% of all resident doctors voted in favour. He fails to point out that Labour is in power on the votes of 34% of the 60% who turned out – about 20% of the electorate. The doctors' result looks more convincing as a test of opinion, whatever you think of the pay WestLondon Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.