Over 450 patients affected by strike action

A total of 455 patients across the Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust were affected by Wednesday’s strike action.

The Trust, which runs the Rochdale Infirmary, Fairfield General Hospital, The Royal Oldham Hospital and North Manchester General Hospital was forced to postpone some clinics and operations across all four sites because of the strike action.

Around 10 per cent of the Trust workforce was absent due to the day of industrial action.

A spokesperson for The Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust, said: “The vast majority of services and appointments went ahead as normal but three particular areas affected by the industrial action were physiotherapy, occupational therapy and x-ray (radiography).

“This meant the Trust was forced to postpone and reschedule routine outpatient physiotherapy and occupational therapy clinics and three out of four fracture clinics – this affected a total of 428 patients – bearing in mind this was across the Trust’s four main hospitals.

“In addition, 27 patients scheduled for an elective operation across all our hospitals were unfortunately postponed in advance due to the strike. These were all elective (planned) non-emergency operations.

“Patients were contacted directly and notified in advance. These operations will be rescheduled as soon as possible.”