Some Banbury area patients' appointments may be cancelled as junior doctors strike from March 13

Oxfordshire hospital bosses, who run the Horton General Hospital in Banbury, say they respect the rights of junior doctors (all those in training to consultant level) to take industrial action. They have ‘tried and tested’ plans in place to ensure cover. It is understood consultants will undertake some of the striking junior doctors’ shifts.

The Horton’s A&E unit and other departments depend on junior doctors for staffing.

The Oxford University Hospitals Trust (OUH) says any patients affected will be contacted individually of any change to their appointment date. The OUH runs the Horton, JR, Churchill and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre.

The British Medical Association (BMA) say the failure of the Health Secretary to negotiate a reversal of pay cuts of more than 26 per cent has left junior doctors in England with no option but to take strike action. Nearly 40,000 junior doctors voted to strike in a ballot.

Twice in the past week junior doctors have called upon Steve Barclay to meet with them urgently but so far no date is forthcoming, the BMA said in a statement before the weekend. They said Mr Barclay refused to attend a meeting with Department of Health civil servants earlier last week.

The co-chairs of the BMA junior doctors’ committee, Dr Rob Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, said ‘patients and public alike need to know the blame for the strike action lies squarely at the Government’s door’.

“Make no mistake, this strike was absolutely in the Government’s gift to avert; they know it, we know it and our patients also need to know it. We have tried, since last summer, to get each Health Secretary we have had, round the negotiating table,” their statement said.

"We have written many times and even as late as yesterday (Thursday) we were hopeful Steve Barclay would recognise the need to meet with us to find a workable solution that could have averted this strike.

"We have not been told why we have not been offered intensive negotiations nor what we need to do for the government to begin negotiations with us. We are left with no option but to proceed with this action.

“The fact that so many junior doctors in England have voted yes for strike action should leave Ministers in absolutely no doubt what we have known for a long time and have been trying to tell them, we are demoralised, angry and no longer willing to work for wages that have seen a real terms decline of over 26 percent in the past 15 years. This, together with the stress and exhaustion of working in an NHS in crisis, has brought us to this moment, brought us to a 72 hour walk out.

“How in all conscience, can the Health Secretary continue to put his head in the sand and hope that by not meeting with us, this crisis of his Government’s making, will somehow just disappear? It won’t, and patients and the public will continue to feel the brunt of his inaction, until he starts to negotiate with us and we agree a deal that truly values junior doctors and pays us what we are worth.”

Sara Randall, Chief Operating Officer at OUH, said: "We recognise and respect the right of our staff to take part in lawful industrial action and we will work with our staff and union partners to minimise the impact on patients, visitors, and staff.

"We have tried and tested plans in place to deal with any changes to our services such as industrial action and this is especially the case following our work during the recent RCN industrial action.

“As always, our priority is to continue to provide safe care for our patients. To help us safely manage the impact of industrial action, some routine and non-urgent appointments and procedures across our four hospitals in Oxford and Banbury during the period of strike action announced by the BMA may need to be rescheduled.

"All patients affected will be contacted directly and anyone with a rescheduled appointment will be rebooked in for the soonest time possible.

“If you have not heard from us by the day of your appointment, please come to your procedure or appointment as planned. Thank you for your understanding."

OUH has approximately 1,200 junior doctors. The trust expects the number of OUH staff taking industrial action and the number of rescheduled appointments to be published nationally after the BMA action.

Junior doctors are qualified doctors in clinical training. They have completed a medical degree and foundation training, and have anywhere up to eight years' experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice. They are foundation year one doctors, foundation year two doctors, speciality trainees in a hospital specialty, specialty registrars in a hospital specialty, specialty registrars in general practice and senior house officers.

Junior doctors with shifts that begin after 06:59hrs on the March 13 will not be expected to attend for those shifts. However if a shift begins before 06:59hrs on March 13, including night shifts that began on March 12, they are expected to conclude those shifts as normal and provide a handover.

For junior doctors with shifts before 06:59hrs on March 16, they are not expected to attend for those shifts. For shifts commencing after 06:59 hrs on March 16, junior doctors will attend for those shifts as normal.