The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Junior doctors set up picket line at hospital
A picket line was set up at Peterborough City Hospital at the start of a national strike by junior doctors on Tuesday.
The four day strike is set to cause disruption for patients across the country as junior doctors call for better pay.
A spokesperson for the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, who run Peterborough City, Hinchingbrooke and Stamford & Rutland hospitals, said: “We are expecting some of our services to be impacted by the proposed industrial action by junior doctors taking place from 7am on Tuesday 11 April to 7am on Saturday 15 April 2023.
“Our main priorities are to provide safe care for patients who are receiving inpatient
care in our hospitals and those who need urgent and emergency care services.
“Our emergency services will remain open, but we ask that you contact NHS 111 or
NHS 111 Online before coming to hospital, so that you can be directed to the most appropriate place for your care or treatment.
“During strike action, we will prioritise resources to protect emergency treatment - life and limb-threatening, critical care, neonatal care and trauma.”
The spokesperson added: “During the period of action we are reducing the number of appointments we have planned to ensure we have safe levels of staffing on our wards, emergency departments and other critical areas.
"Patients with an appointment planned during the period of action will be contacted directly if this means their appointment now needs to be rescheduled.
"We appreciate how disappointing this will be for anyone waiting for treatment or investigations and we are sorry to postpone arrangements.”
When the strikes were announced, Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson, cochairs of the BMA junior doctor committee, said: "We want to spend our time looking after patients, not on strike.
"But with an NHS buckling under a workforce crisis, and four in ten junior doctors looking to leave, we can’t stand by while our pay is further eroded by inflation and an intransigent Government.
"We are not going to stop until we are paid what we are worth, and if ministers don’t accept that when we tell them in person, we will have to tell them from the picket line.”