NHS: Strikes
(asked on 24th February 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of missed or cancelled appointments in the NHS as a result of strike action between (a) July - November 2023 and (b) July - November 2024.
NHS England publishes data on the number of rescheduled appointments due to industrial action, which is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/preparedness-for-potential-industrial-action-in-the-nhs/
The following table shows the number of elective procedures, outpatient appointments, and community appointments that were rescheduled due to industrial action between July and November 2023 as well as the corresponding period in 2024:
Time period | Number of elective procedures that were rescheduled | Number of outpatient appointments that were rescheduled | Number of community appointments that were rescheduled | Total appointments that were rescheduled |
July 2023 to November 2023 | 60,974 | 475,283 | 3,991 | 540,248 |
July 2024 to November 2024 | 1,643 | 19,551 | 86 | 21,280 |
Source: NHS England
Note: some of these appointments would have been rescheduled to a date in the same time period.
We are pleased that a deal was agreed last summer between the Government and the British Medical Association Resident Doctors Committee bringing an end to their prolonged strike action. The Government can now work with resident doctors to get on with its mission of fixing the health service for patients, including tackling waiting lists.
As set out in the Plan for Change, we have committed to return to the NHS constitutional standard that 92% of patients, wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment (RTT) by March 2029. We have already supported this with additional investment in the Autumn Budget 2024, which has enabled us to deliver an additional two million appointments, seven months ahead of schedule.