NHS Providers boss warns of health service ‘looking into abyss’ if consultants strike

But BMA’s junior doctors committee says government can end dispute by ‘paying doctors what they are worth’

The NHS will be “looking into the abyss” if hospital consultants follow the example of junior doctors and go on strike over pay, the leader of England’s hospital bosses has said.

Hospitals will be left unable to function normally if consultants – the most senior doctors on wards – stage walkouts in pursuit of their pay claim, Sir Julian Hartley said.