Consultants’ strike to impact patients
Consultant doctors at The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust and across the country are planning to take industrial action from 7am on Thursday 20 July until 7am on Saturday 22 July.
This follows a five day Junior Doctor strike which ended earlier this week.
During the strike, Consultants will only provide staffing levels to cover emergency care, meaning the Trust will experience a ‘Christmas Day service’ for two consecutive days. As the period of industrial action is immediately followed by a weekend, services are expected to be impacted for a number of days.
Unlike other staff groups, no other clinicians can provide cover for consultants, meaning any planned care which requires consultant supervision needs to be rescheduled. The Trust have contacted patients directly to inform them if their appointment has been cancelled.
Throughout the strike, those needing emergency care should still call 999 or visit the Urgent and Emergency Care Centre. For general health concerns which are not an emergency, the public are encouraged to use alternative services such as NHS 111 online, GPs or pharmacies.
Medical Director at The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust, Dr Jo Beahan, said: “This is an extremely tough time for the NHS as a whole and we are grateful to patients for their understanding.
Consultants work widely throughout the Trust, and supervise the work of Junior Doctors, meaning the impact of this strike will be felt by many patients.
I encourage anybody who needs urgent care to still use our services. If urgent care isn’t needed, please consider alternatives as we are expecting long waits in our Urgent and Emergency Care Centre throughout the strike period and into the weekend.”