Trust leaders are gearing up for more disruption from a three-day strike by junior doctors next week, in the seventh consecutive month of industrial action in the NHS.

Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, said:

"We can't go on like this. We can't let strikes become 'business as usual' for trusts and their patients.

"More than 542,000 procedures and appointments have had to be rescheduled due to strikes since last December.

"We understand why junior doctors feel so frustrated by their pay rising below inflation. Every hour that trust leaders and staff have to spend reorganising strike-hit services is time that takes them away from core business: seeing patients as quickly as possible, providing first-class care and cutting waiting lists.

"With nurses, consultants – who could strike for two days in July – and radiographers across England being balloted about possible industrial action the prospect of months of more strikes is alarming.

"Trust leaders say it's not too late for serious talks between the government and unions to end these disputes and to prevent more walkouts. Getting round the table and talking is the only way to sort this out. Yet this isn't happening and it's patients, yet again, who will pay the price.

"Trust leaders and their staff will continue to do everything they can to minimise disruption and keep patients safe. But there is major concern about the long-term impact on patients who have their care delayed, on the cost of ensuring cover and the knock-on effects on wider health services.

"The longer that industrial action goes on and trusts have to keep coping with the fall-out from the most significant period of industrial action in the history of the NHS, the less they can focus all of their energy on patients."