Hospitals in Essex affected by nursing strikes
Hospitals from the East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) will be affected as nurses strike today (Wednesday) and tomorrow.
Picket lines will be held outside Ipswich, Colchester and Clacton Hospitals, from 7.30am until 7.30pm.
The ESNEFT says it's committed to keeping disruption to services to a minimum - with a key focus on providing safe care for patients who need urgent and emergency services, and those receiving inpatient care in hospitals.
The following services will go ahead, although may be at a reduced level:
Emergency care, including emergency surgery, critical care, chemotherapy, dialysis, urgent cancer care, inpatient care and activity that does not require nursing support.
ESNEFT will be reducing the number of appointments planned during the two strike days to make sure there are safe levels of staff across all services.
Patients will be contacted if appointments needs to be changed, so are advised to turn up as usual if you are not contacted.
The Royal College of Nursing says it's holding strikes to rectify the years of real-terms pay cuts that are pushing people out of the nursing profession and putting patient safety at risk.
They are requesting a pay award that goes 5% above inflation (the retail prices index).
ESNEFT Chief Executive Nick Hulme said:
“We are planning for all eventualities to keep our patients safe – that is our top priority.
“We value all our staff and understand the importance of good pay and conditions for individuals and their families, as well as for wider NHS staff retention and recruitment.
“While pay is a matter for Government and the trade unions, we want to see a resolution as soon as possible to make sure we can continue to focus on delivering high quality and compassionate patient care to anyone in our communities who needs it.”
Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust is not impacted by strikes and all services under the trust will be running as normal.
If you need medical help or advice, go to NHS 111 online unless it is a life-threatening emergency when you should still call 999.