East Midlands hospitals face tough start to the year amidst winter pressures and longest strike yet
ITV News Central Reporter Jane Hesketh speaks to NHS staff and patients about the pressures facing healthcare this winter.
Hospital staff across the East Midlands are preparing for the longest strike in NHS history, at a time when the service is at its most stretched.
From Wednesday 3 January, junior doctors will walk out for six days after failing to reach a settlement in their dispute with the government over pay.
King's Mill Hospital in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, has reached its maximum bed capacity.
Staff are still urging patients to keep all outpatient appointments or to let them know if they cannot attend.
One in 15 people do not turn up to appointments - with the figure rising to one in ten during peak times, according to NHS Trust Sherwood Forest Hospitals, which manages King's Mill Hospital.
Staff at King's Mill take an average of 200 calls per day, from patients worried about their appointments and informing those who have had theirs cancelled.
Teresa Ilyk, the hospital's booking coordinator, says patients should always attend their appointments if they have not been told otherwise.
She said: "So the message to patients is if you haven't been contacted by the hospital to cancel your appointment, then attend [the appointment] as planned.
"We'll be in touch if your appointment has been affected."
Hospitals like King's Mill are facing a particularly difficult start to 2024, with rising rates of winter viruses coupled with people who delayed seeking help during the holidays, meaning systems are severely over stretched.
CT scanner manager Sarah Sentance says the number of patients her department sees every day has gone up significantly.
"CT [a computerised X-ray] at the moment is very busy and that is our busiest area at the moment," she said.
Sarah added: "And these scanners here where we do our acute work for ED [emergency department] and in-patients, we do about 100 patients per day across the two scanners.
"And that has gone up nearly 20% on last year."
Despite the winter pressures and strike action, NHS bosses are keen to reinforce hospital services are still open for business.
They say planned care and appointments are still going ahead and they urge patients not to miss any appointments if theirs haven't been cancelled, adding "every appointment counts".
The NHS has warned the strike action could see up to half of the medical workforce on picket lines, creating "the most difficult start to the year the NHS has ever faced."
It added emergency and urgent care will be prioritised during the strikes and almost all routine care will be affected - but patients are being urged to still come forward to seek care if they need it.
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