Overview

• The UK experienced a record number of excess deaths in 2023, with nearly 53,000 more people dying than normal, the highest figure recorded in a non-pandemic year since World War II.
• The British Medical Association (BMA), the doctors’ union, has been warned that the patients at the greatest risk of harm during the strikes are those with fast-progressing cancers, time-critical inductions and urgent “elective” C-sections, and corneal transplant surgery.
• Junior doctors are set to walk out at 7am on Jan 3 for six consecutive days, returning to work at 7am on Jan 9, during what is typically the busiest week of the year for the NHS.
• The Department of Health and Social Care urged the BMA to “call off their strikes and come back to the negotiating table”.
• NHS staff are “weary” of covering for junior doctors ahead of their longest strike yet, leaders have said.