Northern Ireland health strikes: Thousands miss out on appointments and procedures with more industrial action on the way

This comes ahead of a one-day strike by the Royal College of Nursing, due to take place tomorrow.

In one Trust alone, a total of 625 appointments were postponed with dozens of inpatient and daycase procedures also being put on hold.

The Nipsa and Unison trade unions remain engaged in industrial action short of strike, following a one-day walkout on Monday that also involved members of the GMB union.

And the Royal College of Nursing's action tomorrow is expected to bring further disruption to hospitals in Northern Ireland.

The strike, which also includes England and Wales, will mean services operate at bank-holiday levels, according to the the head of the NHS Confederation has said.

The News Letter asked each of Northern Ireland's regional health Trusts how patients are being impacted by the industrial action.

A spokesman for the Belfast Trust said on Tuesday that it was unable to say how many procedures had been cancelled, but insisted patients would be kept up to date.

The South Eastern Trust also did not provide figures on the number of procedures and appointments being put on hold or called off due to the strikes.

A spokesperson for the Northern Trust said six endoscopy procedures, five outpatient appointments and 656 domiciliary care calls were missed due to the strike, with the closure of 10 adult day centres affecting 209 service users, the closure of 12 learning disability day centres impacting 666 service users, 39 mental health patients missing out on clinics, and "some impact" to treatment rooms.

The Trust said "more significant disruption" is expected on Thursday.

The Western Trust, meanwhile, said 625 new, routine and review outpatient appointments had been postponed across its facilities, with 47 inpatient and daycase procedures put on hold, alongside the closure of several day centres, mental health clinics, and other services.

The Southern Trust said it had put "approximately 300 outpatient appointments" on hold, with a further 50 inpatient and day case procedures also postponed.

Looking ahead to tomorrow's planned strike by the Royal College of Nursing, Matthew Taylor of the NHS Confederation said trade unions are committed to maintaining emergency and critical care services and he was “reasonably confident that we won’t see severe patient harm”.

Mr Taylor, who speaks for healthcare systems in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said there would disruption to planned care, such as non-emergency operations and outpatient appointments.

The head of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Pat Cullen, said strikes would go ahead after Health Secretary Steve Barclay refused to discuss pay.

Mr Taylor told Sky News there were conversations at both a national and local level “to try to protect life and limb” on strike days “and it’s important that those conversations continue”.

He added: “It’s disappointing that it seems that the meeting between the Secretary of State and the RCN has not made any progress.

“I’m reasonably confident that we won’t see severe patient harm as a consequence of this action, but what we are going to see is cancellations of appointments and procedures.”