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Patients asked not to visit A&E during strike days

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Maisie LillywhiteGloucestershire

BBC An ambulance waits outside a covered back entrance at an aging hospital, which has marks on its white render. It is about three stories tall with windows jutting out, and there is a green grass verge to the right.

Patients have been asked not to attend an accident and emergency department as resident doctors begin six-days of strike action.

Resident doctors walked out at 07:00 BST on Tuesday after talks between the British Medical Association (BMA) and the government broke down.

The strike is scheduled to continue until Monday and Gloucestershire patients have been warned Cheltenham General Hospital's A&E will operate until then as a minor injuries unit between 08:00 and 20:00.

Mark Pietroni, Director of Safety and Medical Director at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust, said patients should attend appointments as normal, unless they were told not to.

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The government accepted a recommendation from the independent pay review body that all doctors, including resident doctors, should get a 3.5% pay rise from April.

But the BMA argued that, despite resident doctor pay increasing by a third over the past four years, it is still a fifth lower than it was in 2008, with inflation taken into account.

The new strike is one of the longest and 15th of the ongoing dispute, which began in March 2023.

A middle-aged man with very short brown hair and a receding hairline stands smiling in a brightly lit hospital corridor. He is wearing black-rimmed glasses, a blue NHS lanyard, and a pink shirt with thin white stripes. There is a stethoscope around his neck.

Pietroni said the NHS in Gloucestershire was "not expecting this strike but we have plans in place".

"I've been remarkably impressed with the degree of cooperation from senior medical staff," he said.

"We've had no problem covering the rotas and I'm confident we'll be able to provide safe care and the majority of our elective care during the strike as well."

In Gloucestershire, Pietroni said it was expected between 100 and 150 outpatient appointments and between 10 and 30 operations and procedures would have to be cancelled.

Gloucestershire Royal Hospital's emergency department will remain open as usual.

A large group of union workers and doctors wearing orange hi-vis tabards and holding plaques calling for doctors to be paid more stand outside the entrance to a hospital. They are speaking among themselves and smiling. It is sunny but they are stood in the shade.

As the strikes take place across England, Sam Taylor-Smith, a resident doctor at Bristol Royal Infirmary, said he was "happy to have a chat with members of the public" to explain their position.

"I think there's a part of me that always feels regretful whenever we take strike action, we don't go into the medical profession to do that," he said.

"Members of the public are understandably frustrated with the situation, as are we, the longevity of it and the complexity of it as well."

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