Anger and fear for patients as strike delays operations

The resident doctors strike in England has begun after a dispute over pay between the government and the British Medical Association (BMA).

Thousands of doctors are walking out over five days, with Health Secretary Wes Streeting insisting that disruption will be kept to a minimum.

But several NHS patients have told the BBC they fear their conditions could become worse after delays to scheduled procedures, while some have also expressed sympathy over the concerns the doctors are raising.

Peter Plant, 58, of Tamworth, who has kidney cancer, said his surgery to remove the organ on Friday was cancelled on Thursday morning. The operation has been rescheduled for 20 August, but he fears the delay could be a “death sentence”.

“Resident doctors do not care that delaying operations like mine are very likely a death sentence,” he said.

“I’m absolutely angry and frustrated. It is not just about me, it’s about our whole family.

“You try and gear yourself up for it and then it’s utter deflation.”

Mr Plant said he and his family had been living in “limbo” and that he felt “utterly lost”.

“Wes Streeting says he has told hospitals to carry on as normal and they’re clearly not,” he added.

Official figures have not yet been released on the impact of the strike. Some hospitals are reporting more than 80% of their non-urgent work is still being carried out.

Previous walkouts have led to mass cancellations of operations, appointments and treatments: more than one million were cancelled during resident doctor strikes in March 2023 and routine care was cut by half at some hospitals.

Hassnain Shahid, from Bradford, said his three-year-old daughter urgently needed lung surgery but it had been indefinitely postponed – despite medical warnings about the risks of delay.

“It’s been an emotional rollercoaster and it’s very frustrating for us,” Mr Shahid said.

Mr Shahid’s daughter has Congenital Pulmonary Airway Malformation (CPAM), a rare lung condition.

He said consultants told him surgery was urgent and that it was important it took place in the summer when there was less chance his daughter could catch a cold.

“Now we’ve been told the surgery has been cancelled and they have no availability – not even in September,” he said.

“They were the ones that said she needed to have it done.

“I understand why the doctors are striking, but when you take this path and you go to university you know how much you’re going to earn – if you’re not happy with the pay, look at an alternative career.”

Sarah, a patient from the north-west of England, said she was due to have a hysterectomy – an operation to remove her uterus – on Monday but it had been cancelled for a second time.

“They don’t have a rescheduled date for me at this time,” she said. “It’s very hard when you have been mentally preparing yourself for major surgery, especially as I was first told that I needed one in November 2024.”

Andrew Mundy, 58, from Lincoln, expressed fears that repeated delays to his tendon surgery could leave him permanently injured.

He injured his knee in early February and was given an initial date for surgery at the end of May, which he said was cancelled because the consultant was on holiday.

The surgery was rearranged for Friday but was cancelled because of the strike, he said.

“I am furious and aware that every delay in surgery will make the chances of a successful repair even less likely,” he said.

“It is not fair that I may never recover from this injury due to delays in treatment.

“It’s frustrating because [the NHS] say that they are not cancelling stuff and things are running as normal, but they are cancelling stuff.”

Michele, from Somerset, has been waiting three years for spinal surgery. She has been told her appointment, which had been scheduled for Thursday, has been cancelled, which she believes is down to the strikes.

Michele said she suffers “constant” and “relentless” nerve pain down the left side of her body.

“I feel I’ve been let down, I feel like I’m not worth it. It’s knocked me,” she said.

Michele said she had taken sick leave from work for more than a fortnight, having already taken a step back from her leadership role to work part-time from home due to the pain.

“It’s got to the point so I can’t even do that now. It’s really affecting my life,” she added.

John Dixon, 81, from the Isle of Wight, said he found out that his knee operation scheduled for Friday at Southampton General Hospital was cancelled with just three hours’ notice.

Mr Dixon said he was already on the ferry to Southampton when he received a call from the hospital informing him of the cancellation.

“How can the NHS treat patients like this?” he said. “They must have [had] a good idea [on Thursday] without letting people go on long journeys just to return home.”

Michael Overson, from Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, has been waiting three years for a knee operation and found out on Friday his surgery, which had been scheduled for Tuesday, had been cancelled.

Mr Overson is a delivery driver for a national supermarket chain and says the delay means he will have to “continue living and working in pain”.

“This places me in limbo as I have no idea when it’ll be rearranged. I can’t plan anything,” he said.

“The increased costs the strikes cause only causes greater harm to the NHS.”

Dr Tom Dolphin, the chairman of the BMA, said before the action began that “we are very sorry that strikes have become necessary”.

“Of course if people have emergencies or need urgent care they should still present to the hospital or their GP as usual, as they always would,” he said.

“Striking is something that doctors don’t want to have to do.”

Additional reporting by Bernadette McCague, Mary Litchfield, Rozina Sini and Kris Bramwell