Publish date: 10 March 2023
Patients are being advised they may experience disruption to services next week during planned industrial action by the British Medical Association (BMA) and Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA).
The BMA and HCSA gained a national mandate for strike action and members will begin their 72-hour strike on the morning of Monday 13 March and finish on the morning of Thursday 16.
Junior doctors will be on strike from 7am on Monday, 13 March until 7am on Thursday, 16 March in a dispute with the Government over pay.
Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is trying to minimise disruption and will continue to provide essential services but has warned that during the 72 hour strike:
- Some planned appointments and procedures may be cancelled – this may be at late notice as the Trust explores every possible avenue for activity to go ahead
- There may be longer waits to be seen than usual but alternative pathways for care can be found on the Trust’s website www.bfwh.nhs.uk
Janet Barnsley, Executive Director of Integrated Care at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals, said: “It is so important that, regardless of any strike action taking place, people who need urgent medical care continue to come forward as normal – especially in emergency and life-threatening cases.
“Then if you have an appointment with us, please assume this is going ahead unless we get in touch with you to let you know.
“Throughout this period we are doing everything we can to minimise any disruption for our patients but clearly some services will be affected. Our priority remains to ensure that people in the greatest need continue to have access to the care they need during the industrial action.
“Please make sure you continue to think about who can help best – if it is not life threatening or an emergency, use NHS 111 online and a clinician will be able to advise what to do. Please continue to only use 999 if it is a life-threatening emergency.”
Further information can be found on the Trust’s website www.bfwh.nhs.uk or through social media on Facebook and Twitter.
