Royal Blackburn hospital East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust was caring for four coronavirus patients in hospital as of Tuesday, figures show. NHS England data shows the number of people being treated in hospital for Covid-19 by 8am on May 11 was down from eight on the same day the previous week. The number of beds at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust occupied by people who tested positive for Covid-19 decreased by 71% in the last four weeks – 28 days ago, there were 14. Across England there were 921 people in hospital with Covid as of May 11, with 126 of them in mechanical ventilation beds. The number of Covid-19 patients hospitalised nationally has decreased by 55% in the last four weeks, while the number on mechanical ventilators has decreased by 62%.
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Burnley General Hospital
Unite the union said its biomedical scientist members, who analyse patient blood samples at the Royal Blackburn Hospital and the Burnley General Teaching Hospital, will strike continuously from 12-01pm Monday May 31st until 6-59am Monday June 21st.
The 21 biomedical scientists, employed by East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, have been striking during night, weekend and late shifts since May 7– but the new strike action means that they will be striking all day for three weeks.
Unite warned that the new strikes increase pressure on whether the accident and emergency department at the Royal Blackburn Hospital will be able to remain open in June.
PATIENTS from south Cumbria may be asked to travel as far as Blackpool or Blackburn for specific expertise as a hospital trust looks to accelerate the restoration of services. Health care colleagues working in the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System have volunteered to be one of the first of a small number of areas in the country to formally ‘accelerate’ the restoration of services. The scale up to see and treat many more people means patients may be asked to go where there is specific expertise and capacity to see and treat them quicker and more effectively. They may be asked if they are comfortable to travel a little bit further or see a different person than usual to help the trust achieve as many appointments for as many people as possible. If this is something they not able to do easily or have reservations about, patients will be able to discuss alternatives.
The move by biomedical scientists is part of a long-running pay dispute. Their union Unite claims the trust has backtracked on a 2019 agreement to upgrade the 21 staff to a higher grade on their specialist pay scale. The scientists, who analyse patient blood samples at the Royal Blackburn and the Burnley General Teaching Hospitals, have boycotted night, weekend and late shifts since May 7. Now their union has revealed they will strike continuously from 00.01 on Monday May 31 until 06.59 on Monday June 21. Unite regional officer Keith Hutson said: “Our biomedical scientists, who have had years of training and are highly skilled, are ratcheting up the industrial action with three weeks of strikes from May 31 which will adversely impact on how quickly patients’ samples can be analysed.
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