Striking Scottish doctors concerned patients will be turned away

SENIOR doctors remain concerned patients could be turned away from hospitals tomorrow because health boards have failed to prepare for strike action.

They are worried many patients have still to be notified of cancelled operations as a result of the one-day strike by members of the British Medical Association.

Up to 10,000 doctors, including GPs and consultants, are set to strike over “unfair changes” to the NHS pension scheme which will increase doctors’ contributions and retirement age.

Dr Lewis Morrison, chairman of the BMA’s Scottish Consultants’ Committee, said some boards had been slow in notifying patients their operations or treatment would be affected by tomorrow’s action.

He said: “We are genuinely concerned not enough has been done by some boards to prepare for this. We are worried some patients will not get sufficient notice about their appointments being postponed and will turn up thinking they will be treated when they won’t be.

“They should have been told by now, but many have not. Yet, this has been on the cards for months and, really, can be no surprise to the Scottish Government or health boards. They now risk doing what we have strived not to do, that is fail to keep patients informed.”

All non-emergency operations – such as knee and hip replacements and cataract operations – will be postponed as a result of tomorrow’s strike.

Doctors who strike will go to work as normal but will only treat emergency or urgent cases.

Dr Lewis, an East Lothian- based geriatrician, revealed the number of doctors in Scotland who voted in favour of the strike was proportionately higher than anywhere else in the UK .

He said because the NHS in Scotland was still a single organisation most doctors worked within, rather than privately, and stood to lose more with the pension plans. He said doctors remained “very upset and disappointed” at being forced into striking for the first time in 37 years.