Nottingham University Hospitals Trust (NUH) has had a derogation agreed with the British Medical Association (BMA) to exempt maternity services from upcoming industrial action.
This is a minimal derogation request, as 94.7% of staffing cover has been achieved across the industrial action period.
The request comes as part of extensive planning by the Trust to maintain safe care for mothers and babies during the industrial action by resident doctors (formerly known as junior doctors), taking place from 7 to 13 April.
Manjeet Shehmar, Medical Director at NUH, said: “Our priority is to ensure that we have safe care across our hospitals, which includes having adequate staffing numbers.
“Since the announcement of industrial action, our teams have been meeting daily to plan and prepare. We have already arranged for consultant colleagues to support shifts, identified clinical academics from local universities to help, offered enhanced rates of pay, and have stood down planned activity where we can. However, we were still not comfortable with the level of staff and so sought derogation as a last resort.
“I would like to thank the BMA for their support and also my colleagues at NUH, who are working hard to manage staffing throughout the industrial action and who will work above and beyond to support our patients throughout that period.”
