Cheltenham General Hospital’s accident and emergency department will continue operating after industrial action by resident doctors was called off. The facility had been scheduled to close on Sunday evening and operate as a minor injury and illness unit through Friday, but the British Medical Association announced the suspension of the strike following a fresh pay proposal from the government.
The NHS trust overseeing the hospital acknowledged that the last-minute decision to proceed with normal operations would create some service disruption. While appointments cancelled for Monday could not be reinstated in time, health officials indicated they were working to reschedule patients whose visits were booked from Tuesday through Thursday. The trust advised patients to attend appointments as originally scheduled unless notified otherwise.
Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA’s resident doctor committee, stated that the organization had sought a pay offer addressing job availability concerns and compensation erosion. He noted that tens of thousands of frontline doctors would participate in a referendum to determine whether the new offer was acceptable. Fletcher indicated that if doctors rejected the proposal, the union planned to pursue further escalated action in the following month.
Health Secretary James Murray characterized the agreement as providing an opportunity to move beyond recent labor disputes. Murray stated that the country’s financial position prevented increasing the pay offer for the current year but that progress had been made in areas including training positions and workplace conditions. The suspended strike would have been the 16th in the ongoing dispute over physician compensation and had been scheduled to run from early Monday morning through Friday morning.
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