The five-day action in England over pay took place between November 14 and 19.
The NHS maintained more than 95% of planned care during the most recent round of doctors’ strikes, according to data from the health service.
Tens of thousands of resident doctors went on strike in a dispute over pay across England between November 14 and 19.
The five-day action, called by the British Medical Association (BMA), was the 13th walkout by doctors since March 2023, with the last strike in July estimated to have cost the health service £300 million.
Resident doctors make up around half the medical workforce in the NHS and have up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor or three years as a GP.
The last time they went on strike more than 54,000 procedures and appointments needed to be cancelled or rescheduled, despite the NHS maintaining 93% of planned activity.
More than 850,000 patients received planned elective care over the five days of strikes, according to the health service.
The NHS said there were on average 17,236 resident doctors absent from work each day.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “The NHS weathered the storm better than ever before and delivered tens of thousands more appointments for patients.
“No-one wants the NHS to have to get better at dealing with strikes, but patients should rest assured that, should the BMA walk out again, the NHS team will pull together and care for as many of them as possible.
“There were still far too many patients who suffered because the BMA refused to put the Government’s offer to its members.
“Polling shows that resident doctors wanted to accept the Government’s offer of more jobs and better career progression.
“These strikes didn’t need to happen, and I hope the BMA will now get serious about resolving this dispute.”
Sir James Mackey, NHS chief executive, urged the BMA to work with the Government.
He said: “This has been a monumental effort by NHS teams, and I want to thank all staff who helped to safely keep the show on the road – continuing almost all care for patients and ensuring the NHS remained open for those who needed it.
“That doesn’t mean things were easy – there are still some patients who had their care disrupted, and as with every strike it takes significant time and effort from staff to manage, which otherwise would be put towards delivering more for patients and helping to get down the backlog.
“We must do everything we can to prevent this from continuing.
“It is bad for patients, bad for staff and bad for the NHS and is not representative of what all resident doctors want.
“I urge the BMA to work with the Government and NHS as we continue to make further improvements for resident doctors.”
BMA resident doctors committee chairman Dr Jack Fletcher said previously that the Government could have stopped the strike with a “decent offer” on pay and jobs and a “deal that values doctors”.
