By Anna Whittaker, Local Democracy Reporter
More than 600 appointments were cancelled across Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust to prioritise emergency care during strike action by junior doctors.
Doctors who are part of the British Medical Association started a six-day walkout on January 3 in a dispute over pay.
The strike action started at 7am and is due to end on January 9 at 7am.
It comes as a critical incident across the whole Nottinghamshire NHS system was declared yesterday (January 3).
An update was given at a Sherwood Forest Hospitals board meeting on January 4.
Paul Robinson, Chief Executive, said 646 patients had cancellations for outpatient, day case and inpatient appointments.
Thousands of procedures are still due to go ahead during the strike action.
Mr Robinson said at Sherwood Forest Hospitals, which runs King’s Mill Hospital, Newark Hospital and Mansfield Community Hospital, 99 per cent of beds are currently full.
Trust board papers added that as of November 2023, the trust had spent £5.4million on industrial action with £3.4million of national funding to mitigate the impact of the strikes.
Mr Robinson said: “It has been a really busy Christmas and New Year period.
“It has been busier than ever in our emergency care pathway and remains so this week with the additional impact of industrial action.
“There is even more severe pressure this week as a system-wide incident has been called with Nottingham University Hospitals declaring a critical internal incident yesterday.
“Ambulances were diverted overnight to assist this. Here at Sherwood Forest Hospitals, every single hospital bed is now open and we are at a 99 per cent occupancy of that capacity.”
Mr Robinson said there were “high levels” of planned care in November but these could not continue in December due to industrial action.
He said: “Despite our best efforts we have been unable to protect our elective pathways.
“Regrettably we have had to cancel 646 patients adding to the 6,348 cancelled in previous periods of action.
“The number of days of industrial action now totals a full month of lost capacity.
“We hope the New Year brings new resolve to sort this out nationally as it comes with considerable impact for patients and colleagues.”
Chair Claire Ward said: “I certainly echo the comments you made about the industrial action and the need to make sure that we continue to put pressure upon all those who may be able to bring a resolution to both sides.”
