Emergency care for children in NHS strikes

[alittlebitnervous1]

My husband thinks I am completely BU but I am not sure. With the upcoming strikes in the NHS I am really nervous, what if we (or more specifically, my child) needs A&E treatment during those days? Will they still do emergency surgery etc.? (Not British myself so I am genuinely unsure how those things work!)

They always do emergency treatment during strikes.
It will be planned appointments that might be cancelled.

Emergency cover will always be provided, including emergency surgery.

Elective activities, including clinics and elective surgery will be cancelled.

As always, only go to A&E if you have a true emergency.

Emergency activity should not be significantly affected; they will be covering services with consultants and/or doctors in non-training posts. I'm a consultant anaesthetist on call on the Saturday and very much expect to still be providing a full service!

There will definitely be paeds emergency care and your kid would be more likely to be treated by a consultant.

Yes - DH had his appendix removed during the last junior doctors strike. The wait in A&E was longer than usual, & he didn't get a bed until they did the surgery, but it was all fine. The nursing staff were absolutely fantastic as was the surgical team, but it took longer to get things like pain relief and for tests to come back as there were fewer doctors to write it up / interpret results etc.

Thank you so much. This is so reassuring to read and made me feel a lot better. Thank you for doing such an important and amazing job!

Thank you so much for sharing this! Great to know and glad he got good care.

Of course they do, my son is a diabetic his team still answer the phone 24/7 on strikes. They dont just shut down and do nothing.

Why is this strike worrying you? There have been lots of strikes historically - so why is this one different? I imagine the odds of needing emergency care are low?

why did you mention not being British - what does that have to do with it?

I mentioned not being British because where I am from, there very rarely (never really) any strikes so I am unsure of how these things are planned/ and work out.

It's worrying me that it's a full 4 days! And to be honest, I probably have a bit of health anxiety as it is, (not about myself but for my child).

But I am very happy to hear from everyone that emergency care is still provided :)

I’m glad the thread has helped reassure you. I don’t know if you can get support for the health anxiety… I suspect if you mention it you’ll never be listened to again with any concerns! It might be worth looking at self help or therapy to deal with it. Try to reassure yourself that unless your child has a condition that makes them high risk, the chances of them needing emergency care during the strike is minimal.

If it helps you, research what has happened in previous strikes. I have to be honest, I haven’t even paid attention to when it’s happening because there’s always someone striking in this country…

You may get even better care in A and E as the senior doctors will be in. You will see more consultants. However the will be being paid £1000s per shift.

This is so interesting! I didn't see it from that perspective...

We barely noticed the last few doctors strikes. And in some ways it was more efficient as the consultants made decisions much quicker.

@Letsbe is correct!

Rules for strikes say there must still be a minimum number of staff on duty. The unions aren't heartless enough to completely put everyone at risk risk.

Ironically these "minimum staffing levels" are often higher than wards or departments operate on the average normal working day, due to recruitment problems, red tape and sickness and absence. Some departments would love to have strike day levels of staffing on a permanent basis!!

It's only resident doctors striking, not all doctors (resident doctors are in their 1st or 2nd year working after graduating)

Yes it is resident doctors striking but that is not just 1st/2nd year doctors. You are a resident doctor until you finish training, I was a resident doctor for 13 years for example before I became a consultant. Out of hours hospitals are run by senior resident doctors with consultants present in some specialities but oncall from home in most!

And to reassure @alittlebitnervous1 - we have been planning for ages for this and ensuring all shifts are fully covered. I am a consultant and fully supportive of the residents whether or not they choose to strike, we are there to ensure safety and that they can strike if they want to.

Yes, sorry, of course!! I have tunnel vision with an F1 kid

Emergency care will still go ahead. It will be planned/elective patients that will suffer.

I am also a consultant who will be covering a few shifts this strike period and did the last few times. The patients had excellent care as all the consultants were on the shop floor doing everything but the trouble was that we struggled to figure out how to print blood forms or discharge letters as it’s stuff we don’t normally do. Also I shudder to think how much it cost to pay all these very expensive people all night and weekend and the number of routine ops and OP clinics cancelled to provide the strike cover.

@ThePure as a nurse, not being able to get Discharge letters done was the biggest problem as no consultant had the right access or knew how to do it. Fortunately nurses can order bloods. 🤣🤣

Thank you so much for your reply. And for covering for your colleagues!

Thank you so much for your hard work. We've got a few nurses in the family and it's such a tough job!