By Anna Whittaker, Local Democracy Reporter
Patients in the most urgent clinical need will be prioritised by staff during next week’s 48-hour nurses strike, hospital bosses say.
Nottingham University Hospitals Trust said it has plans in place and will contact any patients affected by the industrial action.
Leaders from the trust, which runs the Queen’s Medical Centre and City Hospital, attended Nottinghamshire County Council’s health scrutiny meeting on February 21.
Councillors asked questions of Chief Executive Anthony May and Chief Operating Officer Lisa Kelly on improvements to the trust, which has faced scrutiny by watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Michelle Rhodes, the trust’s Chief Nurse, told the meeting 4,000 members of Nottingham hospitals staff – out of a total 19,000 – are members of the RCN.
She said: “We are working really closely to ensure everybody has the right to strike. We are absolutely clear about that.”
Sue Saddington (Con) chair of the committee, said: “Can I ask a question about the strikes? How will this be managed for people having elective surgery?
“I know there is a lot of concern out there. The whole thing sounds like a nightmare.
“Those people who are our residents expecting elective surgery, if they miss a major operation, how far back do they go down the line before they can have their operation?
“That’s a big concern.”
Lisa Kelly, Chief Operating Officer, said: “Unfortunately, this is not our first time going through industrial action.
“We’ve had an opportunity to test out our planning and our preparations and our execution of the plan.
“Across the organisation, we are looking at the volume of staff we expect to see next week and therefore what activities we can carry on with.
“By Thursday, we will start to contact those patients that are affected by the industrial action next week.
“We are constantly re-prioritising those patients. If you are a clinically urgent patient, you are at the top of that list.
“The strike action will take place on Wednesday, Thursday into Friday next week. We will then be re-prioritising the activity and capacity we have got for the following week.
“Unfortunately that means a larger volume of patients are affected but we are constantly trying to make sure the most clinically urgent get access to services.”
Cllr Saddington added: “It is clearly a very difficult problem, but that’s life isn’t it.”
Michelle Welsh (Lab) said: “Let’s just make it clear that operations are cancelled whether people are on strike or not.
“The reason they’re striking is to make a difference to what is going on in our health service.”
She added: “Nurses have been on strike, junior doctors are going on strike and ambulance staff have been on strike. All in my opinion for very valid reasons.”
Unions are taking the action while making varying demands over better pay and working conditions from the Government.
The Government has said pay has already increased for NHS workers and has urged unions to instead start talks on next year’s deals.
