THOUSANDS of appointments at Barnsley Hospital have been rescheduled over the past 18 months due to industrial action - with more than four years’ worth of work also lost.
Analysis of NHS England figures shows a total of 2,115 appointments have been rescheduled due to industrial action at Barnsley Hospital since December 2022.
All of these were in acute outpatient or inpatient settings.
In addition, 1,656 working days - the equivalent of more than four-and-a-half years - were lost due to strikes.
These figures cover various parts of the NHS workforce - consultants, nurses and other occupations have also been on strike over the past two years - so not every cancelled appointment was with a junior doctor.
Across England, more than 1.5 million appointments have been rescheduled, with over a million working days lost.
Some trusts did not submit data for each round of industrial action.
On Monday the BMA junior doctors committee in England accepted the government’s pay offer, with 66% of junior doctors voting in favour of the deal.
Dr Trivedi, co-chairman of the BMA’s Junior Doctors Committee, said: “This is the first step towards restoring pay, which is all that doctors have wanted since the beginning of this campaign.
“As you’ll know, we’ve had a huge pay cut since 2008, but this marks a change in that trajectory.
“Doctors who were being paid just over £15 an hour before this offer will now be paid a little over £17 an hour, so it does mark an improvement, but the journey is not over.”
The deal will see junior doctors’ pay rise by between 3.71 per cent and 5.05 per cent - an average of 4.05 per cent - on top of their existing pay award for 2023/24.
This will be backdated to April 2023.
Each part of the pay scale will also be uplifted by six per cent, plus £1,000, with an effective date of April 1 2024.
Both rises mean a doctor starting foundation training in the NHS will see base pay increase to £36,600, up from about £32,400, while a full-time doctor entering speciality training will see their pay rise to £49,900 from about £43,900.
Both senior and junior doctors - as well as nurses on one occasion - have taken industrial action at the Gawber Road site as they sought a better pay offer from the government.
A report, which has been seen by the Chronicle, shows that over the latest ten-month period strike action has cost the hospital’s trust an additional £3m.
This has negatively impacted its overall financial position, with a £5.2m deficit anticipated for the year-end forecast.
Agency staff - who have been drafted in to cover for those on strike - have also rocketed in cost, while the financial impact of missed appointments has also contributed to the figure.
A hospital spokesperson said: “Barnsley Hospital developed detailed plans to support wards and departments and maintain the flow of patients through the hospital during the last strike period.
“Doctors who were not on strike supported areas of need, and some doctors who were striking voluntarily supported these areas if they wished to pause their strike action at different times during the day.”
