Surgeons to work during junior doctor strike at London hospitals hit by cyber attack

Surgeons will be allowed to cross the picket line to work at London hospitals affected by a Russian cyber attack to prevent “dangerous” delays to cancer care during the junior doctor’s strike, a union has announced.

Junior doctors in the British Medical Association (BMA) will begin a five-day walkout from 7am on Thursday in a long-running dispute over pay.

The strike comes weeks after Guy’s and St Thomas' NHS Trust and King’s College London NHS Trust were hit by a ransomware attack by Russian hacking group Qilin.

The attack targeted Synnovis, a pathology firm which processes blood test results for the two NHS trusts and GP surgeries across south London. Hundreds of operations and appointments have been cancelled in the weeks since the incident.

In a statement posted on X, the BMA said: “To prevent dangerous delays to cancer care, we are granting a derogation for surgical registrars working on high-risk upper GI, head and neck, and lung cancers at three hospital trusts: Lewisham and Greenwich, Guy's and St Thomas’ and King's College Hospital.

“This will help patients who have experienced dangerous delays to their care due to the difficulties of mitigation against the unplanned and malicious cyber-attack. We thank NHS England for raising their concerns with us in the interest of patient safety.

“The derogation only applies to surgical registrars in upper GI, head and neck, and lung cancer services at the 3 trusts listed. All other junior doctors, including at these trusts, still can and should strike.”

Meanwhile, NHS bosses have warned that the heatwave will place further pressure on hospitals during the strike.

Yellow heat health alerts are in place for many parts of the country and will end at 5pm tomorrow.

NHS England’s national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said the industrial action would lead to “additional pressure on services at a time when demand for services is already high”.

The BMA is seeking a 35 per cent pay rise to correct a real-term fall in income since 2008.

Earlier this month, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting urged the union to call off the strikes and reiterated that “the money isn’t there” to give junior doctors a 35 per cent pay rise under a Labour Government.

In May, the Government and the BMA entered mediated talks to try to resolve the dispute but failed to reach an agreement before the election.

A wave of industrial action in the NHS by junior doctors, nurses and consultants since December 2022 has led to the cancellation of around 1.5 million appointments, according to NHS figures.