THE chief of Colchester Hospital has warned some patients will have their anxiously awaited operations cancelled during impending strike action.
Junior doctors are to stage a 96 hour walkout in the east of England between Tuesday and April 15.
It is expected to be the most disruptive industrial action in the history of the NHS due to its length and the fact it will take place directly after a Bank Holiday weekend.
The strike will cause chaos at the East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust’s hospitals in Colchester, Clacton, Harwich and Ipswich.
The trust’s chief executive, Nick Hulme, said some appointments and operations may have to be cancelled next week.
It means patients may see delays in starting their treatment – for instance, if a new cancer patient needed to start weekly rounds of chemotherapy, the start of their treatment may be delayed.
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Mr Hulme said: “As with previous strikes our teams have been carefully planning for the anticipated impact of the junior doctors’ strike action.
“Our focus is on protecting urgent and emergency services and this means we will need to reschedule a number of appointments and operations.
“This will help us to make sure we have the clinical staff available to keep urgent and emergency care and inpatient wards running safely.”
Patients will be contacted if their appointment needs to be rescheduled and have been urged to continue to attend any arranged meetings if they have not been told otherwise.
“We know how disappointing it will be for patients who have their appointments rescheduled and we will rearrange the appointments as quickly as possible,” added Mr Hulme.
“We realise that some people have already been waiting a long time for treatment and, where possible, we have been working hard to bring some operations forward rather than rescheduling to a later date.”
About 61,000 junior doctors are anticipated to join the action next week.
Last month’s three days of strikes by junior doctors saw about 28,000 staff take part, with 175,000 hospital appointments disrupted across the country.
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