A doctor wears a badge next to her stethoscope in support of the Junior Doctor’s contract.
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Today’s (Apr 26) strike is the first time services such as A&E, maternity and intensive care have been hit in the long-running dispute.
The BMA claim health secretary Jeremy Hunt failed to undertake an equality impact assessment prior to the government imposing terms and conditions on junior doctors.
But the UK Health Secretary made it clear a new contract will go ahead.
The trust’s medical director Stephen Hodgson said: “We have been working closely with junior doctors and consultants to develop strong contingency plans”.
If you have a planned operation, procedure or outpatient appointment on a strike day, your hospital will contact you if the appointment needs to be rearranged.
The industrial action is due to start tomorrow morning and junior doctors will walk out again on Wednesday, but the war of words for this week has already begun in earnest.
But the junior doctors, organised around the British Medical Association, say the contracts are unfair and could put patient safety at risk, saying a real seven-day service ought to be properly resourced.
Yes. Jeremy Hunt angered junior doctors by repeated references to higher death rates for patients in NHS hospitals at weekends.
He said, if he was a junior doctor he would join the action because the government had left no other option, and because, “My senior doctor colleagues would be providing that care and would be providing it in a way that I would trust”.
“These changes are never easy but the question is are you going to take the hard decisions that mean we have better care for patients – deliver manifesto commitments and that is what I am absolutely determined to do”.
East Lancashire Hospitals Trust has reassured patients that it has implemented a number of measures to ensure patients receive safe care and staffing levels are adequate.
“Warrington Trades Council have supported the doctors on all of their previous days of industrial action from January to April this year and they are now urging others to show their support”.
More than 100,000 patients are expected to have their treatment disrupted by the strike.
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Anyone feeling unwell can call their GP or the 111 hotline, visit a local pharmacy or walk-in centre or use NHS choices online to check symptoms.
