Junior Doctor Strike: Blackpool and Fylde hospitals face 'extreme pressure' in the 72 hour industrial walkout. How will patient care be affected?

Blackpool Teaching Hospitals have warned of cancellations and longer waiting times, as they work to minimise disruption to patients.

How will patient care be affected by the junior doctor strike?

Patients with greatest clinical need will be prioritised, and longer waiting times are expected over the next few days.

Emergency care and other critical services such as maternity departments will be open and life-threatening calls responded to.

Janet Barnsley, Executive Director of Integrated Care at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals, said: “We are doing everything we can to minimise any disruption for our patients but clearly some services will be affected. Our priority remains to ensure that people in the greatest need continue to have access to the care they need during the industrial action."

I have an appointment. Will it be cancelled?

Some planned appointments and procedures may be cancelled – this may be at late notice as the Trust explores every possible avenue for activity to go ahead.

Janet said: “Then if you have an appointment with us, please assume this is going ahead unless we get in touch with you to let you know.”

What should I do if I need medical treatment during the junior doctor strike?

Anyone needing non-emergency care can use the NHS 111 online service, where a clinician will be able to advise what to do.

Janet added: “It is so important that, regardless of any strike action taking place, people who need urgent medical care continue to come forward as normal – especially in emergency and life-threatening cases. Please continue to only use 999 if it is a life-threatening emergency.”

Why are junior doctors on strike?

Junior doctors are taking part in planned industrial action by the British Medical Association (BMA) and Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA).

The walkout lasts from 7am on Monday, 13 March until 7am on Thursday, 16 March in a dispute with the Government over pay.

Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairman of the BMA junior doctors’ committee, told Sky News that “our pay range starts at £14 an hour and, after 10 years of practice, you know, seriously skilled and educated and talented people who have gone through many expensive exams, achieving many difficult competencies over their careers…

“So, for example, neurosurgeons operating on people’s brains in the middle of night, they can be earning about £28 an hour on that basic hourly rate and our basic hours are quite shocking. Our basic hours range from 7am to 9pm. That’s what’s called a basic hour for us.”

Government ‘not listening’

He said the Health Secretary Steve Barclay had been unwilling to meet to discuss pay, and had ‘only turned up to one’ meeting out of many, since last August.

“We’re very happy to talk. August we wrote to him, October we wrote to him and, in November, we met with the Department of Health and Social Care and they told us ‘Until you’ve got a ballot, until you’ve got a result, there’s no point talking’…

“He came back to us Friday night. He sent me an email at 9.49pm asking us to talk when we’d had a meeting with his civil servants earlier that day, which he didn’t turn up to.

“We’ve gone to many meetings and he’s only turned up to one. So for him to come out and say that we’re not coming to the table is, frankly, disingenuous.”

‘The most disruptive set of industrial action days’

While other strikes in 2023 have each lasted 24 hours, the junior doctor strike will last three days – making it ‘the most disruptive set of industrial action days that we’ve seen all winter’.

Professor Stephen Powis, medical director of NHS England, told Times Radio the health service will see “extensive disruption” over the next three days.

He said: “[Junior doctors are] a large part of the medical workforce, and of course work in many healthcare settings, not just hospitals – general practice, mental health trusts, and of course community settings too – and so it’s likely that we will see that extensive disruption.

“We’ve been focusing on ensuring that emergency care, A&E departments, critical care, maternity services are maintained, but that’s going to come, unfortunately, at the expense of other services, such as routine appointments and some surgery.

“So we’re going to have to reschedule a lot of appointments a lot of procedures this week, I’m afraid.”