NCIC rescheduled more than 25 patient appointment and seven inpatient procedures during the recent industrial action by junior doctor.

Junior doctors were on strike from 7am on February 24 until 11:59pm on February 28 in their long running dispute over pay and working conditions with the government.

The BMA has previously called for a 35 per cent pay rise for junior doctors which they say would make up for ‘15 years of below-inflation wage rises’ which has caused a ‘recruitment and retention crisis’ in the NHS.

The government has offered the junior doctors a pay deal which the union has said isn’t ‘credible’.

Junior doctors have received a pay rise averaging nearly 9 per cent this financial year.

The strikes have put further pressure on the NHS and have had an impact on regional waiting lists and treatment times.

A spokesperson for NCIC said: “We would like to thank our community for their ongoing support during the periods of industrial action.

“Careful planning has meant that we have been able to maintain safe emergency and urgent services, but we did have to reschedule a small number of appointments; 26 outpatient appointments and 7 inpatient procedures.”

Figures from NHS England show 473 operations were cancelled by NCIC in 2023.

This was more than the 422 operations cancelled the year before, but down from 558 in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic.

These were cancellations on the day of the appointment or after the patient had arrived at hospital – rather than operations rearranged in advance.

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Separate figures show 38,061 patients were waiting for non-urgent elective operations or treatment at NCIC at the end of December – up slightly from 37,904 in November, and 37,856 in December 2022.

This was the final set of strike action planned by the BMA but junior doctors are voting whether to extend their strike ballot for a further six months which the union ‘fully expect’ staff to do so.