UK doctors' strikes harm patient care, data shows

The six-day strike by junior doctors in England this month caused further disruption to the National Health Service, or NHS, resulting in the cancellation of more than 113,000 incidents of patient care, data shows.

Industrial action by doctors, nurses and other workers during the last 13 months has had an extensive impact on the health service in England, which has had to reschedule more than 1.3 million appointments, said the NHS Confederation, which represents healthcare providers within the NHS structure in England.

Junior doctors, who have gone on strike for a total of 34 days in the past 10 months, have called for a pay rise significantly above inflation to address what they say is a substantial decline in their real earnings since 2008-09.