This is the first NHS strike that has left me feeling frightened and abandoned

After eight months of walk-outs, this week’s 72-hour doctors’ strike is set to cause some of the worst disruption yet, writes James Moore. Someone is going to pay a hideous price – and it could be me

Doctors strikes are creating a crisis in the NHS (Getty)

The NHS is getting frightening. Hairs on the back of the neck, The Exorcist (director’s cut) in a dark, empty cinema on your own with no one to hold on for comfort-level frightening.

Hospital bosses have warned to expect “severe disruption” from this week’s 72-hour doctor’s strike. Those of us with health conditions will be on the frontlines. Thousands of appointments will be cancelled; appointments where test results are scrutinised, checks are performed and early warning signs of trouble are picked up on.

It goes without saying that complications are a lot less complicated when they are dealt with early. Galling as it is to bring economics into this sort of this discussion, it is also much cheaper. The net result of the ensuing chaos is that someone, somewhere is going to pay a hideous price. In three, six or 12 months time when they finally get seen, something awful is going to turn up.