Bristol hospitals have frozen waiting lists amid strikes, bosses say

Health leaders said they were expecting more strike action over the summer

Hospital leaders have admitted they have been forced to freeze some patients waiting lists because of strike action by staff.

The move is to avoid "distress" for patients, families and staff, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Trust (UHBW) says.

The latest strike saw junior doctors walk out for 72 hours last week.

Trust chief executives told a board meeting they were also maintaining services and keeping patients safe.

A report said that during industrial action in April, patients were waiting longer than 62 days on a "referral to treatment" pathway for cancer and other patients were waiting over 78 weeks, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

While some NHS unions have accepted the Government's pay offer, which is now being implemented, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and Unite remain in dispute. This is a separate dispute from junior doctors, who are on a different contract.

UHBW chief executive Eugine Yafele told the meeting: "Our planning and preparation for strike action is certainly paying off, because we're in a good position both at Weston and in Bristol.

"That good position belies a lot of risk that we continue to have on a day-to-day basis but we continue to manage that, so as far as we can, and as best as we can we are keeping services going to keep patients safe.

"We remain at risk of further industrial action from those unions that haven't signed up to the national pay deal and as ever we will continue to plan for and mitigate as best as we can some of the disruption caused by this."

'Moral distress'

UHBW deputy chief operating officer Philip Kiely told the meeting the trust was mitigation the impact of strike action.

"What we are doing... is pausing the booking of lists that we think have a high likelihood of being cancelled to avoid the distress and inconvenience of patients and families but also for our staff," he said.

"That moral distress is also felt by our admin and clerical staff having to ring patients and re-book.

"We found that was a better approach. It means the reported level of cancellations is lower than the real impact we have experienced in terms of loss of capacity."

The RCN is currently re-balloting its members until Friday over another strike action mandate, while the Society of Radiographers is doing likewise until 28 June. The BMA is balloting consultants and junior doctors for further action until 27 June.