DOCTORS responded furiously today after health officials expressed “deep concern” about patient care provision during four days of strike action next week.

Junior doctors, who are members of the British Medical Association (BMA), are set to strike from 6.59am on Tuesday to 6.59am on Saturday next week.

NHS managers have raised concerns about emergency cover and the effect on operating lists, saying the strike could be worse than previous junior doctors’ strikes because many consultants who stepped in then are on holiday over Easter week.

NHS Confederation director of policy Dr Layla McCay said: “Health leaders are bracing themselves for the most significant strikes in a decade with many aspects of patient care resting on a knife-edge.”

She said NHS leaders were “deeply concerned about not being able to provide safe care.”

But Dr Latifa Patel, BMA workforce lead officer, said: “No-one understands better than us, the doctors who care for them, that patients are getting a substandard experience 365 days a year from an overstretched and understaffed NHS. 

“In this brutal work environment, patient care is at risk every day due to chronic staff shortages and years of underinvestment in equipment and services.

“We have a jointly agreed system with NHS England in place to ensure patient safety in the event of extreme and unforeseen circumstances.

“We met with NHS England four times per day during the last strikes to monitor the situation, but there were no requests for a derogation – a temporary stoppage of the industrial action – to be made.

“The same proven arrangements will be in place this time.

“Junior doctors have no desire to strike, they been pushed into this action by long-term government inaction and now want to bring this dispute to an end as quickly as possible.

“We hope the Health Secretary will come to the table immediately with a meaningful pay offer so doctors can avoid more strike action and instead return to doing what they want to be doing: caring for their patients.”

The Department of Health and Social Care said the BMA’s demand for a 35 per cent pay rise to make up for 15 years of below-inflation awards is unreasonable and unaffordable.