Thousands of junior doctors in England will begin an unprecedented four days of strike action on Tuesday, forcing an estimated 350,000 appointments and operations to be cancelled as the NHS focuses on urgent and critical care.
Around the country, hospital trusts are scrambling to fill gaps in rotas, deploying consultants, nurses and other health professionals to maintain services. But thousands of patients have already had planned treatment cancelled, swelling waiting lists that were already at record levels.
Dr Layla McCay, director of policy at the NHS Confederation which represents health organisations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said health leaders had been doing all they could “to plan for what will be the most significant set of strikes the NHS has seen in the last decade”.