NGH to announce cancelled appointments caused by upcoming doctors strikes

The medics have voted to go ahead with a five-day every month until the end of the year because of the unresolved dispute with the Government over weekend working.

Without knowing how many junior doctors - that is, those below consultant level - intend to join the industrial action, hospital bosses do not yet have a figure for how many appointments will be cancelled.

However, a short-notice 48-hour strike in March this year caused more than 400 appointments to be cancelled, including 66 operations.

Although the overall number of strike days is more this time, it is likely that - appointment-wise, at least - the planned industrial action will cause less disruption per day as NGH bosses will have time to plan around it.

However, it is likely that more strain will be placed on staff in A&E and other departments if their regular colleagues are missing.

A spokeswoman for Northampton General Hospital said meetings on the subject were proceeding on Friday.

A spokeswoman said: “We have set our contingency planning process in motion and over the coming days we will be refining our plans to ensure that we do everything we can to keep patients safe during the industrial action.

“Our focus will be on maintaining safe care for our patients, including emergency care.

“This means we will need to cancel some appointments and procedures and we will announce details of which clinics and departments are affected as soon as possible.”

The action will take place from 8am to 5pm between September 12 and 16, October 5 and 11, November 14 and 18, and December 5 and 9.

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