Nursing strikes taking place at some Shropshire health trusts this week
Nurses will be on strike at some Shropshire health organisations this week as their dispute with the Government over pay continues.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) strikes take place on Wednesday and Thursday at the Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital (RJAH) at Gobowen, near Oswestry, the Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, and Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust.
There will however be no nurses striking at Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust, which manages both Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford – staff at the organisation either did not vote in favour of the action, or not enough members voted to reach the threshold for it to be a legal ballot.
The strike action is the first to take place in the county since nurses voted to walk out, with the initial round of industrial action in December not including Shropshire.
Both RJAH and Shropshire Community Health Trust asked for people with appointments to attend as planned, unless told otherwise.
A statement from RJAH, posted on its website, suggested that some appointments had been cancelled – but those affected had been contacted directly.
All three organisations have also asked for people who require urgent care during the strike to seek help in the normal way – via NHS 111, calling 999, or visiting A&E.
The statement from RJAH said: "Some nurses at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital will be on strike on Wednesday and Thursday, January 18 and 19, as part of industrial action by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).
"Our priority as a trust is to make sure the safety of our patients is maintained during this period.
"We would like to ask patients with appointments on one of these two days to attend as planned unless you hear otherwise from us.
"We are contacting directly any patient whose appointment needs to be rescheduled as a result of strike action. If you do not hear from us, you should therefore assume your appointment is not impacted and will go ahead as planned."
A statement from Shropshire Community Health Trust said it is working "to mitigate disruption".
It said: "The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has announced that strike action will be taking place on Wednesday and Thursday, January 18 and 19.
"This action will be taking place only at trusts where the threshold was met as part of the RCN ballot. Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust has met the threshold.
"We would like to reassure you that we are working together with our partners to try and mitigate the disruption to the public."
It added that is does "not yet know the extent to which services will be affected," but will provide an update when it has more detail.
