Radiographers in England to strike as data shows scale of disruption

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More NHS workers in England are set to go on strike on Tuesday as new data showed that roughly 68,000 hospital appointments and procedures were axed because of last week’s walkout by senior doctors. 

About 5,000 radiographers — about one-quarter of the workforce in England, including staff delivering cancer support and treatment — will walk out for 48 hours from 8am on Tuesday, in the profession’s first-ever solo stoppage.

Their strike and the cancellation figures came as research group the Health Foundation forecast that a further 2.5mn people would be living with major illness by 2040, pointing to the long-term pressures that the NHS faces as the government seeks to cut waiting lists ahead of the general election next year.

Dean Rogers, executive director of the Society of Radiographers, defended the two-day action and said further walkouts could be prevented if ministers agreed to match the pay rise of 6 per cent offered to other public sector workers for 2023-24 and extend it to those on freelance contracts.

Radiographers received a pay rise of 5 per cent and two one-off payments totalling at least £1,655 as part of the deal in May that covered NHS staff in England.

Miriam Deakin, director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, which represents health organisations across England, said 90 per cent of people saw a radiographer for acute diagnosis or treatment.

“The impact of this strike therefore cannot be underestimated — patients will be hit hard,” she warned. 

But health secretary Steve Barclay called on radiographers to call off “disruptive strikes” and accept the government’s “fair and reasonable” final offer.

The radiographers’ stoppage came as official data showed that at least 67,762 hospital appointments and procedures in England had to be cancelled across hospital, mental health and community services because of the walkout by consultants last week.

That brings to more than 820,000 the number of patients whose treatment has been delayed since industrial action first hit the NHS in December last year.

Health minister Will Quince described the cancellations as “disappointing” and said strike action was “hindering efforts to cut NHS waiting lists and impacting on patient care”.

Meanwhile, analysis by the Health Foundation pointed to forthcoming structural changes in demand for NHS care that would call for greater investment, particularly in general practice and community care to shift the service towards disease prevention and early intervention.

Research by the foundation and Liverpool university projected that more than 9mn people in England would be living with a major illness by 2040, a rise of 2.5mn from 2019, underlining the pressure that already squeezed public service budgets would face in the future.

Some 19 of the 20 health conditions studied were forecast to increase in prevalence, including a rise of more than 30 per cent in the number of people living with conditions such as cancer, diabetes and kidney disease. 

The rise partially reflects the ageing of the vast “baby boomer” generation: 80 per cent of the increase is expected to affect people aged at least 70.

Anita Charlesworth, director of the Foundation’s REAL Centre, which carried out the work, said that with one in five people projected to be living with major illness in less than two decades’ time, “the impact will extend well beyond the health service and has significant implications for other public services, the labour market and the public finances”.