Number of hospital procedures cancelled due to last week's consultants strike revealed
More than 200 appointments were cancelled across the county's hospitals due to the impact of the most recent consultants strike.
The most recent industrial action, which came as part of consultants' continuing pay dispute with the government, took place over 48 hours last week – on August 24 and 25.
In Shropshire a total of 66 staff members were on strike across the two days at the county's three hospitals – The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital (RJAH) near Oswestry, as well as the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) and Princess Royal Hospital Telford (PRH), both managed by the Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH).
At RJAH there were 18 members of staff absent for strike action on the first day, with 15 on the second.
Across both of SaTH's hospitals there were 14 off on on the Thursday, and 19 off on the Friday.
The NHS has confirmed the number of inpatient and outpatient appointments cancelled across the country as 45,827.
Across the county's three major hospitals there were 210 – 15 inpatient and 75 outpatient at SaTH, and 28 inpatient at RJAH, and 93 outpatient.
NHS national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis said: “Industrial action continues to have a huge impact on the NHS, and on the lives of patients and their families.
"This strike took place into a bank holiday weekend, when NHS activity is generally lighter, but many services have for some time avoided scheduling any panned appointments for strike days in order to prioritise emergencies.
“This means the true impact of this action will be even higher, and as we move into September, the extraordinary cumulative effect of more than nine months of disruption poses a huge challenge for the health service, as staff work tirelessly to tackle the backlog.
"I’d like to thank all colleagues across the NHS who kept patients safe and provided life-saving care during this latest round of action."
