Accident and emergency departments will be safe when junior doctors stage two walkouts next month.

That was the pledge from the trust which runs Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and Calderdale Royal Hospital, Halifax, ahead of an all-out junior doctors’ strike next month.

Almost all (98%) of junior doctors balloted voted for full strike action in protest against government plans to extend their regular working hours.

Accident & Emergency Dept at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary in Lindley
Accident & Emergency Dept at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary in Lindley

Junior doctors will walk out of A&E departments across the country from 8am to 5pm on December 8 and 16.

They will also refuse to work in all but emergency departments for 24 hours from 8am on December 1.

Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust (CHFT), which runs the two hospitals, has already drafted plans to close temporarily one of its A&E departments should staffing levels fall dangerously low.

But the trust says it is developing plans to ensure its A&E departments are safe during the strikes.

Trust Deputy Chief Executive, Julie Dawes, said: “As previously stated we have already started planning with clinical leaders across the trust and these will continue to be developed and refined further.

“This is to ensure that as well as our emergency and urgent admissions, all our inpatients are looked after safely and appropriately during any industrial action.”

Julie Dawes, Director of Nursing at Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust
Julie Dawes, Director of Nursing at Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust

Doctors’ union the British Medical Association (BMA) has been locked in a battle with Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt over the new contracts which come into effect in August.

The BMA says the new contracts will effectively lead to pay cuts and force junior doctors to work dangerously long hours.

Over 28,000 BMA members voted with 99% voting for industrial action short of a strike – and 98% approving the strike.

poll loading

Do you support the junior doctors' strike?

Commenting, Dr Mark Porter, BMA council chair, said: “We regret the inevitable disruption that this will cause but it is the government’s adamant insistence on imposing a contract that is unsafe for patients in the future, and unfair for doctors now and in the future, that has brought us to this point.

“Patients are doctors’ first priority, which is why, even with such a resounding mandate, we are keen to avert the need for industrial action, which is why we have approached Acas to offer conciliatory talks with the health secretary and NHS Employers to clarify the conflicting information coming from government over the past weeks.

Calderdale Royal Hospital, Halifax
Calderdale Royal Hospital, Halifax

“The health secretary is right when he says this action is ‘wholly avoidable’. Our message to him is that junior doctors have today made their views perfectly clear but that it is still possible to get back around the negotiating table to deliver a contract that is safe for patients, contains the necessary contractual safeguards to prevent junior doctors being overworked and properly recognises evening and weekend work.”