West Mid and Kingston hospitals cancel appointments and warn of busy emergency departments
By The Editor
13th Mar 2023 | Local News
The area's hospitals have warned of disruption through to 7am on Thursday as the result of a strike by junior doctors.
West Middlesex, Kingston Hospital, urgent care and community clinics, such as Teddington Memorial, will all be affected with staff redeployed to maintain emergency, cancer and maternity services.
A number of medical appointments have been cancelled while emergency services are likely to be extremely busy.
As a result, the public are advised to contact 111 online, contact GPs and pharmacists as a first port of call if they are looking for help and advice.
West Mid is part of the Chelsea & Westminister Trust, who said: "Many of our junior doctors will be taking part in strike action from 7am on Monday 13 March until 6:59am on Thursday 16 March.
"Our hospital services at West Middlesex University Hospital and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital are expected to be very busy on these days as fewer staff will be working. Our community-based clinics will also be affected.
"We have plans in place to help ensure safe care for patients during this time."
It added: "Regardless of any strike action taking place, it is important that people who need urgent medical care continue to seek help, especially in emergency and life-threatening cases.
"Our A&E departments will be very busy during this time so, if you need medical care but it's not an emergency, please seek advice from community services such as GPs, pharmacies or by calling 111. This will help us to prioritise patients with the most urgent needs and ensure you get the right care in a timely way."
Warning of cancelled appointments, it added: "To help us safely manage the impact of the industrial action and continue to provide urgent and emergency care on the strike days, we will need to postpone some non-urgent appointments and procedures.
"If we do not contact you to reschedule, please attend your appointment as planned. Please be aware that there might be delays on the day."
The chief executive of Kingston Hospitals Trust, Jo Farrar, confirmed similar disruption, including many cancelled appointments, will be seen at the hospital over the next 3 days.
She said: "Kingston Hospital will be open but we are cancelling a large number of outpatient appointments and planned surgery so we can deploy our staff in emergency services, cancer services that wards and maternity."
She added: "We will fully respect our junior doctor colleagues' right to strike and know that the decision to take action and is not one taken that is taken without a great deal of thought, or lightly.
"My hope is that meaningful negotiations will take place, so that we can avoid future industrial action and solely focus on being here to take care of people when they need us."
The junior doctors and the BMA say that they have suffered a 35% cut in recent years because pay has failed to keep up the rising in inflation. They argue that they carry enormous debts of more than £100,000 due to the long cost of study and start on pay of £14 an hour, which is less than some coffee shops pay.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told reporters on a flight to the US: "It is very disappointing that the junior doctors' union are not engaging with the Government.
"We are actually having constructive dialogue with other unions who have accepted our offer to come in and talk through it.
"As you have seen with rail... they have put an offer to their members, we are having constructive dialogue with the nurses' unions and all the other healthcare unions and I would urge the junior doctors to follow suit, and accept the Government's offer to come in and have talks, the other unions have done that and we are making progress."
Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said: "It is incredibly disappointing the British Medical Association (BMA) has declined my offer to enter formal pay negotiations on the condition strikes are paused.
"I hugely value the hard work of junior doctors and urge unions to come to the negotiating table and cancel strikes which risk patient safety and impact efforts to tackle the backlog. I want to find a fair settlement which recognises the crucial role of junior doctors and the wider economic pressures facing the UK."
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