Picture: Junior doctors on the picket line outside QMC on Tuesday
Junior doctors are staging a full medical strike for the first time in the NHS’s 68-year history – and at least 1,000 Nottingham patients will be affected.
The walk-out is being held on Tuesday and Wednesday between the hours of 8am and 5pm and will mean junior doctors provide no emergency care or appointments.
More than 1,000 Nottingham patients will have appointments and surgery postponed over the two days.
Nicky Hill, Director of Human Resources at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We will reschedule any operations or appointments that are regrettably cancelled at the earliest opportunity; mindful of the disruption such cancellations cause patients and their families.”
Nationally the NHS has postponed 125,000 operations and treatments in preparation for the strike.
There will be 306 outpatient appointments affected and 35 inpatient appointments cancelled at King’s Mill Hospital and Newark Hospital.
There will be a total of 892 appointments and 127 surgeries cancelled at the QMC and Nottingham City Hospital cancelled over the duration of the strike.
Junior doctors’ dispute with Government: Key points
The long-running dispute is between the BMA and the government over the planned introduction of a new contract.
The main sticking points are the scrapping of guaranteed pay rises linked with time in the job and the scrapping of unsociable hour pay between 7am and 10pm on every day apart from Sunday.
The BMA argues this will mean junior doctors will get paid less whereas government ministers argue that the increase in basic pay will mean three quarters will actually get paid more.
The Government announced they would impose the new agreement in February after the BMA rejected the Government’s final offer.
This will be the fourth strike as a result of the contract dispute, but will be the first in which junior doctors do not not provide emergency care.
They are not covering accident and emergency units, urgent maternity services, resuscitation and mental health crisis teams for the first time ever. Specialists and consultants are being drafted in to provide cover.
Junior doctors plan new strike tomorrow – and they will NOT provide emergency care. Do you support their actions?
— Notts TV News (@Notts_TVNews) April 25, 2016
Just over half of respondents backed doctors in a Notts TV News Twitter poll on Monday
The NHS has released advice to the general public on how to deal with the strikes, including reminding people to only use A&E departments for genuine emergencies.
The British Medical Association in a letter to Jeremy Hunt said if the Government lifted the imposition of the contract junior doctors would call of the strike.
The association said: “The imposition of this contract is tremendously damaging to the morale of junior doctors and medical students and has resulted in a complete breakdown of trust between doctors and the Government.
“It is this decision which has led to the current, lamentable situation, the resolution to which is now squarely in your hands.
“As you know, no junior doctor wants to have to take industrial action, but they have been left without further recourse.”
Picture: Junior doctors on strike outside the QMC in March
The Government claims that the imposition of the contract will help improve care at weekends.
In a letter to the association, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “The extreme action planned will be deeply worrying for patients, and place enormous additional strain on our NHS at a time of intense pressure.”
Figures issued in January by Ipsos Mori showed people overwhelmingly support the strikes.
However when junior doctor strikes do not offer emergency care the support for them drops significantly from 66 per cent to 44 per cent.
And a Twitter poll conducted by Notts TV on Monday shows Nottingham is divided with 55 per cent of respondents supporting the strike, while 45 per cent are against it.
