NO operations were cancelled at Warrington Hospital or Halton General Hospital today as striking junior doctors picketed outside.
All emergency and urgent hospital procedures were running as normal at both hospitals, according to Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Professor Simon Constable, medical director at the hospitals, said: “No operations were cancelled at Warrington or Halton hospitals today as a result of the junior doctors’ strike.
“We rearranged around 40 non-urgent outpatient appointments in advance of today and these patients are being rescheduled to be seen as soon as possible. Urgent and emergency work remained unaffected.”
The A&E department at Warrington – which last week closed to all but life-threatening cases – remains busy with winter pressure and the hospital is still asking people to examine other options for treatment.
Doctors were on picket duty outside Warrington Hospital – and had the support of Nick Bent, Warrington South Labour spokesman, who condemned what he described as the government’s incompetent handing of the NHS for the strike.
He said opinion polls clearly showed that the public supported the decision to strike by junior doctors. Ninety eight per cent of the medics who took part in the strike ballot voted to strike, he said.
Mr Bent added: “In Warrington, the strike comes at a time when NHS services are already badly over-stretched. Under the Tory Government, A&E waiting times at Warrington Hospital are at a record high and the town suffers a serious shortage of GPs.
“Any patient who has had their operation cancelled or appointment postponed this week should be clear – don’t blame our junior doctors, blame Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron.”
