Health and care sector latest developments
Doctor strike will harm patients, NHS boss warns
Prof Tim Briggs, who is a national director at NHS England and has been involved with talks with the BMA on strike planning, says while doctors have a right to strike it should never lead to patient harm - but it is now clear the walkouts by resident doctors will harm patients.
Resident doctors will begin a strike at 07:00 BST Friday.
Earlier, on the eve of the strike, DHSC published a video from Secretary of State on social media platforms, in which he calls the strike action unnecessary.
Senior doctors are being asked to provide cover, but Prof Briggs has said he is worried about the impact it will have on both emergency and non-urgent care.
NHS England is aiming to keep the majority of non-urgent care, such as knee and hip operations, going during this strike, which marks a change in approach compared with previous industrial action when such treatment was cancelled en-masse.
The BMA believes this approach is not safe and says non-urgent care should be cancelled in many cases to ensure emergency services are better covered.
In a call with NHS chief executives yesterday, NHSE chief executive Sir Jim Mackey expressed that the strikes must not be ‘pain free’ for the BMA.
Also today, the Nuffield Trust published a report that shows that resident doctor pay has fallen below 2011/2 levels, but by less than the BMA claim.
Government says it has doubled GP target
The government has today claimed that it has doubled its target of employing 1,000 additional GPs, and 2,000 extra GPs have now been hired across the country since last October.
In May 2025, an extra 12,000 GP appointments were delivered every working day compared to May 2024.
The recruitment has been funded by £82 million of investment, and by reducing restrictions on the roles that can be recruited through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) to include GPs.
Sizeable improvement in ambulance handover delay
The latest activity figures published in Wales today show that while pressure on emergency care services remains high, the average time from arrival to triage was 16 minutes – the shortest since February 2021.
The overall time the Welsh Ambulance Service waits to transfer people to staff at the hospital’s emergency department fell by more than 87 per cent in June compared with May and almost three-quarters of people were transferred in just 15 minutes.
In response, the Welsh NHS Confederation said: “NHS activity and performance figures for May and June paint a mixed picture for the health and care system in Wales. While many areas remain stable, the significant reduction in ambulance handover delays, both month on month and year on year, must be welcomed. Thanks to the hard work and determination of staff and leaders, ambulance handover delays came down from 19,700 hours in May to 15,300 hours in June, compared to 22,000 hours in May last year. Not only does this speed up the transfer of people into emergency departments, it also releases ambulance crews to respond to 999 calls in the community to those who need it most.”
Pay suppliers on time, NHSE tells trusts
NHS England has today restated that it is committed to a policy that requires trusts to pay suppliers promptly.
It comes after Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust, which is running low on cash reserves, said NHS England ‘advised that some providers may need to consider deferring supplier payments where necessary to avoid breaching cash limits.’
A report to the board of the trust said this action would be a ‘last resort and highly undesirable’.
Under the Better Payment Practice Code, which was introduced to support small and medium businesses, NHS organisations should pay 95 per cent of invoices within 30 days.
ICBs agree merger to cover 4.5 million population
North West and North Central London ICBs are set to merge to become the biggest system in England.
Leaders of both ICBs endorsed the merger plan at their board meetings today and yesterday, respectively. The proposal will be sent to NHS England for approval.
The new system will cover 13 London Boroughs and have 4.5 million people in its care.
