Warning as strikes force Cheltenham A&E to become minor injuries unit
Gloucestershire NHS has issued a warning ahead of the Easter weekend, as the Accident and Emergency department at Cheltenham General Hospital will be transformed into a minor injuries unit for nine days.
From 8am on Saturday 8 April until 8am on Monday 17 April, the department will become a nurse-led minor injuries and illness unit.
Emergency staff, including consultants and other senior clinical staff, will be transferred to Gloucester Royal Hospital's Emergency Department.
The NHS says the changes will enable everyone to come together at Gloucester to keep services safe.
Hospitals across the West Country are expected to be under considerable strain in the coming weeks, as a result of the Easter Bank Holiday weekend, followed by strike action by junior doctors.
NHS leaders are urging local people to only visit A&E or call 999 if their condition is life-threatening or very serious.
Campaign group REACH says the decision at Cheltenham could lead to the permanent closure of it's A&E.
REACH representative Julius Marstrand said: "We were horrified. Bank holidays are the busiest times a year for all hospitals all over the country.
"To close an A&E department for Easter, before the strike even starts is absolutely absurd and it will cause horror to people in Cheltenham and North East Gloucestershire.
"It's not the strike, it's the fact that they've lost so many staff and they're having to transfer staff from Cheltenham to Gloucester to backfill the staff shortages there."
In response, Professor Mark Pietroni, Medical Director of Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "We did this during the last strike, we did this during Covid, people raised similar concerns about the long-term future of Cheltenham A&E at that time.
"I said clearly that the emergency department would revert to its current way of operating and it did after covid, and it did after the last strike and it will after this strike.
"On the Monday morning after the strike, services at Cheltenham A&E will go back to exactly the way they are now."