Urgent and emergency services at Addenbrooke’s Hospital ‘will be maintained as nurses strike’

Health bosses say the safety of ‘life and limb’ services at Addenbrooke’s Hospital will be the focus during this month’s nurses’ strike.

Members of the Royal College of Nursing union are set to walk out on Thursday (December 15) and next Tuesday (December 20) in a dispute over pay.

The RCN union is calling for nurses to be given a pay rise of five per cent above the RPI inflation rate, which was 14.2 per cent in October.

It has said nurses could suspend planned strikes if the government agrees to talks on pay.

The government has previously announced average pay increases of 4.5 per cent for doctors and 4.75 per cent for other NHS staff – including nurses – in England next year.

David Wherrett, the director of workforce at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “There will be action, there will be picket lines and there will be this focus on safety.”

He explained that more than 3,000 appointments had been cancelled and other services were being “stepped down”. The trust says patients will be contacted directly if their appointment needs to be postponed. If you do not hear from the hospital then you should attend your appointment as planned.

A statement released today (Wednesday) said: “Our key focus is on providing safe care for patients who need urgent and emergency services, and those receiving inpatient care in our hospitals.We know that this will come as a huge disappointment to those waiting for treatment at our hospitals, and we are very sorry.”

CUH will continue to provide the following services, some of which may be at a reduced level:

• Emergency care – same day emergency care, emergency department, emergency support services, emergency surgery
• Critical care
• Chemotherapy, radiotherapy and dialysis,
• Inpatient care
• Urgent diagnostic procedures and other time critical services
• Activity that does not require nursing support

The trust has made a ‘derogation’ agreement with the RCN, which means that staff working in some services will be prevented from taking part in strike action when they are rostered to work so the hospital can make sure patients are safe.

Chief operating officer Nicola Ayton said: “We’re focussing on safety and maintaining those critical services over both days of industrial action, whilst also supporting our staff.”

Mr Wherrett told the a weekly staff briefing yesterday (Tuesday): “We’ve said very clearly, and it’s important to re-emphasise, that our ambitions are two-fold. The first is to support or provide mechanisms and arrangements to allow that legitimate industrial action to take place.

“The second is to maintain safe patient services for emergency, urgent and cancer services and a range of services identified by us and the RCN. These are very real ambitions and I cannot stress how important it is that we keep those two things in mind.”

A wave of strikes by nurses, paramedics, rail workers and Border Force staff this month is expected to cause mass disruption.

Of the 10 NHS ambulance trusts in England, only one will not be affected by the strike – the East of England Ambulance Service, which serves Cambridgeshire.