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Maisie LillywhiteGloucestershire
BBC
Industrial action taken by resident doctors means Cheltenham General Hospital will not have an emergency department
Patients have been asked not to attend an accident and emergency department as resident doctors begin six-days of strike action.
Resident doctors walked out at 07:00 BST on Tuesday after talks between the British Medical Association (BMA) and the government broke down.
The strike is scheduled to continue until Monday and Gloucestershire patients have been warned Cheltenham General Hospital's A&E will operate until then as a minor injuries unit between 08:00 and 20:00.
Mark Pietroni, Director of Safety and Medical Director at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust, said patients should attend appointments as normal, unless they were told not to.
More from Gloucestershire
The government accepted a recommendation from the independent pay review body that all doctors, including resident doctors, should get a 3.5% pay rise from April.
But the BMA argued that, despite resident doctor pay increasing by a third over the past four years, it is still a fifth lower than it was in 2008, with inflation taken into account.
The new strike is one of the longest and 15th of the ongoing dispute, which began in March 2023.
Pietroni said patients who have had their appointments cancelled would have been told over the phone
Pietroni said the NHS in Gloucestershire was "not expecting this strike but we have plans in place".
"I've been remarkably impressed with the degree of cooperation from senior medical staff," he said.
"We've had no problem covering the rotas and I'm confident we'll be able to provide safe care and the majority of our elective care during the strike as well."
In Gloucestershire, Pietroni said it was expected between 100 and 150 outpatient appointments and between 10 and 30 operations and procedures would have to be cancelled.
Gloucestershire Royal Hospital's emergency department will remain open as usual.
Resident doctors walked out of hospitals across England on Tuesday morning, including Bristol Royal Infirmary
As the strikes take place across England, Sam Taylor-Smith, a resident doctor at Bristol Royal Infirmary, said he was "happy to have a chat with members of the public" to explain their position.
"I think there's a part of me that always feels regretful whenever we take strike action, we don't go into the medical profession to do that," he said.
"Members of the public are understandably frustrated with the situation, as are we, the longevity of it and the complexity of it as well."
