NHS warns of chaos as heatwave hits during junior doctors’ strike

The NHS has warned patients to expect “major disruption” as a heatwave coincides with junior doctor strikes.

England’s top doctor said the five-day walkout, which begins on Thursday morning, would be “very hard” because of the impact of soaring temperatures on the elderly and vulnerable.

Britain experienced its hottest day of the year on Tuesday with temperatures reaching 29.4C in Herstmonceux, East Sussex, according to the Met Office, which also warned that Wednesday would be even hotter.

The doctors in training walk out from 7am on Thursday for the 11th time since March 2023, and return to work on Tuesday, July 2, just before the general election and a new Government is formed.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said it would consider requests for doctors to cross the picket line and return to work if needed, for example letting two doctors return to work if an incident at Glastonbury “ended up with tonnes of people being admitted to hospital”.

A yellow heat health alert is in place across most of the country because of the high temperatures, which are forecast to reach 31C in the South East and London on Wednesday.

Prof Sir Stephen Powis, the NHS medical director, said: “This new round of strike action will again hit the NHS very hard, with almost all routine care likely to be affected, and services put under significant pressure.

“The warmer weather can lead to additional pressure on services at a time when demand for services is already high.”

He said staff were working to prioritise emergency patients but admitted that it “becomes harder each time to bring routine services back on track following strikes” and that the impact over time had been “enormous”.

More than 1.4 million appointments and procedures have been cancelled because of strikes, including 91,048 during the most recent action in February, when there were also up to 23,760 junior doctors on the picket line in one day.

Prof Philip Banfield, chairman of the BMA, said hospitals would be staffed with more experienced consultants during the strike action, but junior doctors would go back to work if there was a critical incident the BMA could verify. Previously, trusts have tried to mislead the union, he said.

He said: “It’s a more senior workforce in place, so those gaps are not quite what you would expect.

“If anyone finds that there is a cluster of incidents that need doctors to go back into work then the junior doctors will go back into work.

“So, for example, if there was something big that happened at any event like Glastonbury and it ended up with tons of people then being admitted to the hospital, what does NHS England do?

“It comes and asks us, tells us what the situation is, and we say ‘Fair, right, you need two people to go back in’.”

The UK Health Security Agency’s yellow heat health alerts will remain in place until Thursday when forecasters expect temperatures will begin to return to their seasonal averages.

The RNLI, the National Coastwatch Institution and other emergency services have warned of fatal cold water shock, suggesting that jumping into water to cool off on a hot day can trigger an involuntary gasp of breath that can lead to drowning.

Showers will fall across northern England and could turn thundery, but the rest of the country will see “more sunshine” and temperatures up in the mid to high 20s Celsius.

Thursday is likely to see a breakdown in the weather, with clouds and outbreaks of rain forecast across the country. Amy Bokota, a senior meteorologist at the Met Office said there was the possibility of  “the odd thunderstorm for some”.

Temperatures on Thursday are expected to remain “widely warm”, with some areas seeing highs of up to 31C.

Caroline Abrahams, director of charity Age UK, warned the elderly to keep hydrated and stay out of direct sunlight and asked people to check in on elderly friends, relatives and neighbours.

She said: “Some older people need to take care as temperatures rise, especially if they have long-term health conditions impacting their heart or lungs.

“It’s a good idea to take some simple precautions such as staying out of direct sunlight and drinking lots of fluids to stay hydrated.

“We can also all help keep older people safe during episodes of severe heat by checking in on older relatives, friends, and neighbours to see if they need anything and to make sure they are not feeling overwhelmed by the excessive heat.”