More strikes at critically under-pressure hospitals

Junior doctors will go on strike for the 10th time at Royal Stoke University Hospital

A hospital trust which has announced two critical incidents this month has warned of the impact of further strike action by junior doctors which began on Saturday.

University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM) said the walkout, which comes amid high demand for services, was expected to last from 07:00 GMT on Saturday until midnight on Wednesday.

It is the 10th round of strikes by members of the British Medical Association (BMA), which is the trade union for doctors in the UK.

The union said progress was being made in talks with the the government but that this had stalled.

UHNM has declared critical two critical incidents in February due to extreme demand on services.

It said the strikes would affect patients attending routine care appointments at Royal Stoke Hospital in Stoke-on-Trent and County Hospital in Stafford.

However, urgent and emergency services would be prioritised, the trust said.

It advised people to use the NHS 111 phone service as their first port of call for urgent but not life-threatening issues.

In an emergency people should continue to use 999 or go to A&E as normal.

'No choice'

UHNM medical director Dr Matthew Lewis said: “We have put in place measures to maintain care for those who need it urgently and rescheduled some planned appointments which are now unable to go ahead.”

Patients who have not been contacted to say their appointment has been postponed should attend as normal.

The BMA is calling for a 35% pay increase for its staff, which it said would bring it back in line with increases in inflation since 2008.

A spokesperson for the BMA said: "Progress was being made in talks but the government failed to meet the deadline of 8 February to present a credible offer.

"In order to allow more time for negotiations to continue, we extended an offer to the health secretary to cancel this round of strikes before it was announced publicly if she agreed to extend the mandate for strike action for four weeks.

"Unfortunately she declined to do so leaving us no choice but to announce this final strike of our mandate."

Health Secretary Victoria Atkins urged the BMA Junior Doctors Committee to call off their strikes.

“I want to see doctors treating patients, not standing on picket lines," she said.

"We made it clear we were prepared to go further than the pay increase of up to 10.3% that they have already received.

"They refused to put our offer to their members."