Hospital trust 'fairly confident' ahead of strike

Both North Tees and South Tees trusts have been preparing for the strike

A hospital boss said he was "fairly confident" his trust could keep staff and patients safe during the forthcoming national strike by junior doctors.

South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust chief medical officer Dr Mike Stewart predicted a “difficult” week as the action comes after the four-day Easter break.

The trust has been trying to free up beds ahead of the action.

The strike runs from 07:00 BST on Tuesday to 07:00 BST on Saturday.

Dr Stewart said "people will get tired as the week goes on" after four days of holiday and four days of industrial action.

“But we are fairly confident we have got things in place to keep people and patients within the organisation safe,” he said.

Dr Stewart told a board of directors meeting the trust was now “very competent” at dealing with strike action.

“When you’d get really worried is if industrial action started to impact on those most urgent, pressing cases, but we are now confident we will have the capacity to do all that.”

'Complex jigsaw'

Trust chief executive Sue Page said there had been a "major campaign going on" to try to release beds ahead of the Easter weekend and strike days.

It was a "complex jigsaw" to keep patients safe, with some staff moving into other areas, she said.

The British Medical Association (BMA) is asking for a 35% pay rise, claiming there have been 15 years of under-inflation salary increases.

The government has described the demand as unrealistic, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The BMA has refused to exempt any services but said it would meet trade union requirements to provide life-and-limb cover and consider pulling junior doctors off the picket line if lives were in immediate danger.

North Tees and Hartlepool Trust consultants and clinicians will work additional shifts

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust said it had also taken measures to ensure patient care and safety.

Consultants and clinicians will work additional shifts and other departments will extend working hours.

Medical director Deepak Dwarakanath said bank holidays were "always busy for any hospital and we expect the following period of industrial action by junior doctors to also be a challenging time".

He urged people to take care doing DIY or gardening over the bank holiday and avoid drinking too much alcohol.