Trust response to junior doctors’ strike Tuesday 1st December 2015

The Trust has full contingency planning to maintain safe levels of patient care during the proposed junior doctors’ industrial action.

Normally there would be approximately 40 junior doctors working on the 1^st December and we expect almost all of those to be on strike and providing emergency cover only. We would like to reassure our patients and the public that our team of Consultant doctors and surgeons will be working on the strike day providing clinical care for patients in place of the juniors.

We are working hard to minimise the impact on our patients, however we are running about a third of our Outpatient appointments and have cancelled all non-urgent surgical procedures.

Not all appointments are cancelled however, so if you have an appointment on 1^st December please do not ring us we will contact any patients who are affected. If you are not contacted by us, please keep your appointment as normal.

There will be considerable pressure placed on the NHS during this time.

Our Emergency Department will be open as normal but we are asking the public to help us cope by only coming to our Emergency Department on the 1^st December if you have an urgent medical problem that cannot be treated elsewhere.

If you think you have a minor illness or injury, please see your GP, pharmacist, or call 111 in the first instance. They will be able to signpost you to the best place for treatment.

Impact on Weston General Hospital from the industrial action

Areas that are being affected:

• Outpatient clinics (some will run as normal)
• All non-urgent scheduled operations
• Physiotherapy clinics (our physios will be on the wards) 

Services that will be open and running as normal 

• Ashcombe Birth Centre
• Oncology Day Unit
• Seashore Paediatric Centre
• Specialist Community Children’s Services
• WISH Sexual Health Centre
• Orthopaedic Fracture clinic
• Radiography (X-Ray)
• ITU
• Emergency Department

We would like to offer our apologies in advance to our patients for any potential disruption to their treatment.

Reacting to the strike announcement, Sheridan Flavin, Director of Human Resources said:

“The Trust remains in a neutral position. The dispute itself is between the Government and the BMA acting for its membership, it is not a dispute between individual NHS Trusts and junior doctors.

"As such we would urge both parties to continue negotiating and reach a mutually acceptable agreement as industrial action remains an undesirable outcome for all those involved.”

Please follow Weston General Hospital’s Twitter account @WestonNHS and go to our website for updates about the industrial action and for advice on services.