This in from the IW NHS, in their own words. Ed
Today, Monday 13th October 2014, between 07:00hrs and 11:00hrs staff joined the national industrial action and formed a peaceful picket line at the entrance to St. Mary’s.
No significant impact on patient care
There was no significant impact on patient care apart from an antenatal clinic where the start was delayed by an hour.
Staff returned to work at 11:00hrs as planned.
Alan Sheward, Executive Director of Nursing and Workforce said:
“The Trust has a good relationship with staff and their representatives. Neither the Trust nor staff side want to see patient care affected in the current national dispute between NHS staff and the Government over the national pay arrangements. It is however entirely understandable that staff want to make sure that their concerns about the current restraint on pay are registered.
“Our Human Resources Department worked closely with managers, staff and their representatives to ensure that the impact of industrial action on patient care was minimised. We have not been advised of the need for any appointments or operations to be cancelled as a result of the industrial action on the Island. Arrangements were in place to ensure that essential services were maintained across the organisation and emergency situations could be responded to. I’m grateful to all managers, staff and local Union representatives for working so closely with us to enable the Trust to plan for any possible disruption to services.
“The industrial action continues for the rest of this week with a ‘Work to rule’ and on Monday 20th October the Society of Radiographers have indicated that they will conduct a strike between 09:00hrs and 13:00hrs with four days of ‘work to rule’ after that. If there is any anticipated disruption which will affect patients we will publicise this via our website at www.iow.nhs.uk, Twitter (@IoWNHSTrust), Facebook and local media. If for any reason we have to cancel a patient’s appointment we will contact them direct.”
Image: © With kind permission of Sandy Clarke
