Doctors' strikes can have surprising benefits - but are they sustainable?

Doctors' strikes can have surprising benefits - but are they sustainable?Just nowShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleHugh Pym,Health editorandChloe HaywardEPAThis month's strike was the 15th in the long-running dispute over pay"We sighed with relief - strikes act like a firebreak." That was how one hospital boss recalled hearing news of a walkout by resident doctors in England last December.Now that the latest doctors' strike has ended, some NHS trust leaders who have spoken to BBC News are reflecting again that the system has run more efficiently - with some saying it has been smoother than on non-strike days.Looking back to previous walkouts they suggest that far from the predicted chaos, there were shorter patient waits, faster decisions and calmer corridors. But there is an acknowledgement that this has depended on patched-up solutions, which can prove costly. About 25,000 doctors who could have been working were absent each day because of the strike in December, according to NHS England.The five‑day walkout of British Medical Association (BMA) members, timed to run up to the start of the Christmas season, was branded "irresponsible and dangerous" by ministers. But inside at least one hospital, the mood, helped by evidence that flu was easing, was strikingly different. The trust chief executive, who noted that the strikes act like a firebreak, told the BBC: "With consultants on the front door, decisions are made fast and admissions fall. Lower bed occupancy before Christmas was a gift."Consultants and other senior doctors deployed in A&E are able to assess quickly whether patients need urgent treatment or whether it is safe to redirect them to other community health services.More direct decision‑makingAt King's College Hospital, a study of the first junior doctor strikes in 2023 found patients were seen, treated and discharged faster on strike days, despite fewer staff on duty. Crucially, researchers reported...