BBCKaren and Stuart Sims said they are both frustrated and upset at a cancelled appointment due to the resident doctors' strikeA cancer patient said he was "furious" after his hospital appointment was cancelled due to a six-day doctors' strike over pay and job opportunities.
Stuart Sims, from Breaston in Derbyshire, has neuroendocrine cancer and was given a cardiology referral after he was told he had a leaking valve in his heart in November.
The 60-year-old was due to attend Nottingham City Hospital on Wednesday, but the appointment was cancelled due to the strikes and rearranged for next month.
The British Medical Association (BMA) apologised for the disruption and said it was taking action, claiming the government had not done enough to address pay claims and concerns about job shortages.
The BMA added resident doctors' pay is 20% lower in real terms than it was in 2008.
Industrial action will start at 07:00 BST on Tuesday and run until 07:00 on Monday.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting previously said the BMA's expectations were "beyond reasonable and realistic".
A Department for Health and Social Care spokesperson said doctors had been offered a "generous deal", which coincided with the government accepting the recommendations of the independent pay review body that all doctors, including resident doctors, previously known as junior doctors, should get a 3.5% pay rise from this month.
Sims was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer in 2021 - a condition which starts in nerve and gland cells.
It has since spread to his spine and liver. He also said he has tumours on his heart.
The appointment was to further investigate his heart valve problems.
He told the BBC he had "psyched himself" up for his cardiology appointment and that he was upset and angry at the cancellation.
He is worried about the impact it could have on his health and said he does not "think patients should be treated as pawns, like in a game of chess".
Sims added: "This delay could be very serious. It's heart-related and it seems to have come from November last year, and I could die from it.
"It doesn't take a lot for your heart to stop working properly so I am worried.
"My cancer in the last six months has progressed more than it has done in the last four and a half years."
Both Stuart and Karen sympathise with resident doctors but felt they should look at other ways to get their message acrossHis wife Karen, an NHS administrator in primary care, said she felt patients were being held to ransom, but added she sympathised with the resident doctors.
"You get a whole load of different emotions but having to wait another month seems too long when it's something so urgent," she added.
"I totally agree - the resident doctors deserve more money. They do, but I don't think people in that profession should be allowed to strike."
Karen said the industrial action would be "affecting the sick and the vulnerable - people they are supposed to be helping".
She added: "From where we're coming from, it's pressure, it's stress, it's hurt and pain. It's prolonging something that we need answers [to].
"I'm not privy to what the government has and hasn't got, and I fully understand where the doctors are coming from - we are both very grateful for the care we've both had over the years.
"Our NHS is amazing - we're so lucky to have it - it's struggling but we need to try and save it. We shouldn't be adding to the burden of it."
EPAOnly once before have resident doctors taken part in a six-day walkoutThe walkout will be the 15th since the long-running dispute started in March 2023.
In total, two-thirds of resident doctors are BMA members.
Streeting previously said resident doctors had received the "largest pay rises of any public sector employees over the last three years", totalling nearly 30%.
He added the government would not offer any further increases.
Last Thursday, the government withdrew an offer of creating 1,000 more doctor training posts in England after the BMA refused to call off the strike.
The government had also offered to cover some out-of-pocket expenses such as exam fees as well as ensuring faster pay progression through the five salary bands that span training.
But the BMA ended the talks and said the deal - and in particular its pay progression element - had been watered-down at the last minute.
'Underinvestment and understaffing'
Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the resident doctor committee at the BMA, said: "We apologise to our patients in the NHS for the disruption to care that will be going ahead.
"As doctors we are apologising all the time for the state of the NHS - for care in corridors, for not being able to offer timely GP visits, and even on non-strike days, sudden cancellations of scheduled appointments that leave people for weeks more than expected on waiting lists.
"These are the result of underinvestment and understaffing, and we are trying to tackle that in our action this week.
"It is even more disappointing that at the last minute in our talks government reduced the funding on the table, leading to these strikes going ahead.
"We are sincerely trying to come to a resolution to this dispute in everyone's interest, but however close we might have seemed this time, we are still not there yet."
A spokesperson for Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Nottingham City Hospital, said: "Patient safety during industrial action remains our priority. To ensure we continue to provide urgent and emergency care, we have had to rearrange some planned outpatient clinics.
"We apologise for the disruption and we have rescheduled Mr Sims's appointment.
"We ask all patients to attend planned appointments unless told otherwise, and to please only use A&E in a genuine emergency."
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