Emergency-only visits to A&E during strikes

Hospital bosses at East Cheshire NHS Trust are urging their local residents to only visit A&E in an emergency whilst the Junior Doctor strikes take place this month.

The Industrial Action will begin at 06:59 on Monday 13 March 2023 and finish at 06:59 hours on Thursday 16 March 2023 and will impact all East Cheshire NHS Trust sites including Macclesfield, Knutsford and Congleton hospitals.

This means, for striking staff, that all work including nights, on-call shifts, and non-resident work will stop during these three days. The British Medical Association has said the doctors had ‘no option’ but to strike.

A spokesperson for East Cheshire NHS Trust said: “Withdrawal of this care for 72 hours is likely to cause significant disruption to service delivery and elective recovery.

“We are working closely with partners to ensure appropriate plans are enacted to deal with this disruption.

“We are also working closely with union representatives to maintain the safety and welfare of our patients during planned staff walkouts, and to ensure any impact on our services are minimised.

“During the upcoming industrial action, we would like to urge local residents to only call 999 or attend our Emergency Department in a life-threatening emergency. Typical emergencies include cardiac arrest, loss of consciousness, fits that are not stopping, breathing difficulties, severe bleeding, allergic reactions and serious head injuries.

For non-urgent concerns, please seek help from NHS 111 online, or contact your GP and pharmacist.

The NHS will do everything it can to go ahead with planned procedures during industrial action – especially for patients in greatest clinical need.

The NHS will contact you if your appointment needs to be rescheduled. If you have not been contacted, please attend your appointment as planned.”