Strike action due to take place on Monday 13 March by junior hospital doctors at Airedale Hospital.
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The strike action by junior doctors in England will be from 7am on Monday 13 March for a 72 hour period until 7am on Thursday 16 March.
This action will affect Airedale NHS Foundation Trust as well as our neighbouring trusts.
The Trust’s priority is the safety of our patients. The planned action will cause a shortage of doctors during this period and our operational and clinical teams are working hard to put in place plans for each service for next week.
The work usually done by the junior doctors will be reallocated to colleagues who are not taking part in the industrial action, such as our consultants and SAS (speciality) doctors.
This will mean the postponement of some appointments and procedures, and the teams are contacting any patients whom this affects. There is information about this on our website here: www.airedale-trust.nhs.uk/industrial-action-by-junior-doctors-from-13-march/
Other than that, our services will run as normal – or as near normal as possible. This includes cancer treatment, urgent/emergency care and operations, community services, labour ward and our inpatient wards. Visiting will be as normal.
Picket line
There will be a picket line at the entrance to the hospital drive (ie on the pavement outside the grounds at the top of the hill) on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings so patients and visitors to the hospital will have to cross it to enter the hospital grounds.
Pickets are obliged to picket responsibly; they can’t challenge people or obstruct the normal working of the Trust and they cannot prevent people from entering or leaving the Trust grounds. Equally we expect that anyone crossing the picket line should accept the pickets’ right to protest and not challenge them.
Operational working
The Trust, like others across England, will be managing services as we managed the covid pandemic, for the period of the industrial action and the rest of next week.
Communications
Patients who are directly affected by the cancellation of appointments and operations are being contacted. The Trust website and social media will be updated with information as necessary.
The Patient Advice & Liaison Service are there to answer public queries and are available on 01535 294019 or