Rotherham hospital sees 80 junior doctors strike over pay restoration

The hospital’s managing trust said the number was similar to that of previous industrial action.

Outpatient appointments were postponed but patient care continued, with the hospital saying “robust” plans were in place to support wards and departments and ensure patients continued to receive “safe and effective care”.

The British Medical Association said the 96-hour walk out of all junior doctors in England was “to achieve a full pay restoration”, claiming that, while workload and waiting lists were at record highs, junior doctors’ pay had been cut by more than a quarter since 2008.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak has said he wants to find a “reasonable compromise” in the row, while health secretary Steve Barclay said ministers remained “ready to start formal talks with the BMA as soon as the union pauses its strikes and moves significantly from its unrealistic position of demanding a 35 per cent pay increase”.

Meanwhile, Unite the Union said staff from Yorkshire Ambulance Service will walk out on May 1 after rejecting the government’s pay offer.

A union spokesperson said members were “increasingly angry that the government has blatantly failed to deliver its commitment to find new money to pay for its proposals, rather than robbing other health budgets”.

Other ambulance service trusts could join the walkout from May 2.

Nurses are also due to hold a 48-hour strike across the country from 8pm on April 30 in their own dispute over pay and conditions, but this will not affect services in Rotherham.