The Medical Director at the trust which runs Shropshire’s two main hospitals says it’s inevitable that some outpatient appointments and routine procedures will be postponed due to planned industrial action by Junior Doctors.
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The strikes will take place between the hours of 8am and 5pm for five days between Monday September 12 and Friday September 16, the BMA said.
Deep divisions among doctors’ leaders were revealed today as Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt accused them of inflicting “the worst doctors’ strike in NHS history” on patients.
A Musgrove spokesman said senior clinicians, nursing staff and operation leads worked together to put robust plans in place to ensure that the hospital remains completely safe during the past strikes and this time will be no different.
England has 55 thousand junior doctros, which means doctors with less than 10 years of experience who make one third of the total of the NHS.
Despite the British Medical Association supporting the action, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AOMRC) said it was “disappointed” and the proposed strikes were disproportionate.
The BMA said it will call off the strikes if the Government agrees to stop the imposition – or carry out more strikes if it does not.
“It’s because the single unifying thread throughout every part of this dispute has been the insistence of the government on moving ahead without agreement”.
A Whitehall source told the Sun: “It’s staggering to hear the junior doctors’ chief praising this contract one month and urging doctors to withdraw life-saving care over it the next”.
Earlier, Prime Minister Theresa May accused the BMA of “playing politics”.
The Government is still continuing with its plans to impose a new contract in October despite doctors voting to reject its proposed terms and conditions back in July.
As the row intensified, the BMA published new guidance to striking junior doctors, informing them patient safety during the strike is not their “sole responsibility”.
Shadow health secretary Diane Abbott said junior doctors have “absolutely no confidence in Jeremy Hunt and this Tory Government”.
Katherine Murphy, of the Patients Association, said she was “gravely concerned” about the intensification of the industrial dispute, which will have a “catastrophic impact” on patients and families and push the NHS into crisis.
Ellen McCourt, the new chair of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, recently wrote to the organisation’s council seeking to “authorise a rolling programme of escalated industrial action beginning in September”.
He also says this is not about putting all weekend care on a par with weekday care, but ensuring that emergency and urgent care is as good during the weekend as it is during the week.
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“We are now working with our staff, including consultants, nurses, other health professionals and union representatives and our primary care colleagues, to come up with plans. Anyone whose appointment or operation is affected will be contacted and we will do our best to reschedule these as soon as possible”.
