People in East Lancashire are being advised they may experience disruption to services next week during planned industrial action by the British Medical Association and Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA).
Junior doctors are set to strike from 7am on Tuesday, 11 April until 7am on Saturday, 15 April in a dispute with the Government over pay.
East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, which provides services across a range of settings including Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital, Burnley General Teaching Hospital, Clitheroe Community Hospital, Pendle Community Hospital and Accrington Victoria Community Hospital, is trying to minimise disruption and will continue to provide essential services but has warned that during the 96 hour strike:
- Some planned appointments and procedures may be cancelled – and this may be at late notice as the Trust explores every possible avenue for activity to go ahead
- There may be longer waits to be seen than usual but alternative pathways for care can be found on the Trust’s website elht.nhs.uk
Tony McDonald, Executive Director of Integrated Care, Partnerships and Resilience at East Lancashire Hospitals Trust, said: "Our number one priority is to ensure that those in greatest need continue to have access to high quality care during the industrial action.
"We are doing everything we can to minimise disruption but there is no doubt that some services will be impacted.
"If you have an appointment at any of our hospitals, please assume this is going ahead - if we need to rearrange any appointments or procedures, we will contact you directly to let you know.
"Regardless of any strike action taking place, it is really important that patients who need urgent medical care continue to come forward as normal, especially in emergency and life-threatening cases, when someone is seriously ill or injured, or their life is at risk.
"Please help us by thinking about the most appropriate service for your need - if it is not life threatening or an emergency, use NHS 111 online or call 111 and a clinician will be able to advise what to do."
Almost half of all hospital doctors in the country are junior doctors – more than 50,000. Junior doctors are qualified doctors who have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.
Junior doctors work in almost every part of a busy hospital, including in A&E, where they might diagnose patients, put them under anaesthetic, write prescriptions, support the process of admission and discharge, maintain the flow of patients through the hospital and ensure beds are available for those who need them the most. They are also an important part of the teams for planned in-patient appointments, as well as out-patient clinics.
Further information can be found on the Trust's website elht.nhs.uk or through their social media profiles on Facebook and Twitter.
