Hospital emergency blood testing cover withdrawn

An agreement ensuring staff continue to provide urgent blood testing services during a strike at two teaching hospitals in Lancashire has broken down.

Blood scientists, who are members of the Unite union at the Royal Blackburn and Burnley General hospitals, first walked out in June in a dispute over holiday pay and have been on strike every weekday ever since.

Unite has now withdrawn a special arrangement which allowed some striking workers to continue providing critical services including emergency blood tests and blood transfusions.

Lancashire and South Cumbria Pathology Service said it was "hoping for a resolution".

Affected employees work in the biomedical sciences department, dealing with urgent and routine blood tests as well as wider diagnostic work for patients.

A Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust spokesperson said the move was having a significant effect on services.

They said emergency care patients and other critical services are being "prioritised" with support from other hospitals in the county and third party providers.

There is currently the capacity to process only between 50 and 70% of the approximately 3,000 routine blood tests that would normally be requested each day by GPs across East Lancashire, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Unite said it backed out of the agreements because the trust was trying to "undermine" the strike by giving staff routine work to do on shifts that they were still working during the walkouts – instead of just the "life and limb cover" the arrangement is designed to provide.

Unite said staff are "owed thousands of pounds".

General secretary Sharon Graham said: "Our members do not want to be on the picket line.

"They have been forced to strike by the trust's disgraceful refusal to pay them the holiday pay they are entitled to and its abuse of their goodwill.

"This dispute will continue to escalate until the trust tables an acceptable offer."

A spokesperson for the Lancashire and South Cumbria Pathology Service said: "The dispute centres on holiday pay following an employment tribunal outcome for a former individual colleague.

"Legal and national guidance suggests this may be a national issue and so we can't resolve it locally at the moment, albeit we continue to engage in constructive discussions with Unite and are hoping for a resolution."

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