Medical Secretaries Strike

Medical secretaries have staged a strike at Altnagelvin Hospital - despite agreeing a 'way forward' at an earlier meeting.

Around 70 secretaries made their stand against the hospital's long-standing grading policy. The NIPSA members also cite a lack of resources and poor working conditions as reasons for the action.

As the strike got underway, a management spokesperson insisted the action was unnecessary: "We had a very positive meeting yesterday with NIPSA representatives and a representative group of medical secretaries in which a way forward was agreed.

"We are obviously very disappointed the strike action went ahead today. We had hoped to bring the matter to a conclusion and avoid any further strike action."

However, NIPSA Assistant Secretary Kevin McCabe said: "Despite the union's best efforts to resolve the two key issues that have given rise to the dispute there has been no satisfactory resolution and further industrial action is now necessary."

The union members have been maintaining a ‘work to rule’ policy since November in order to highlight an "administrative backlog" in the hospital, which has impacted on patients, according to Mr McCabe.

He added that the backlog had "created unacceptable working conditions for staff who believe they are overworked and understaffed."

Sinn Féin MLA Martina Anderson called for the Foyle Health Trust to avoid further industrial action at Altnagelvin Hospital by accepting the recommendations of an independent panel set up to assess wages of medical secretaries.

Ms Anderson said: "Medical secretaries at Altnagelvin Hospital - who provide a vital service - are striking after the trust refused to recognise the recommendations of an independent panel.

"The panel recommended that these workers should be graded on a Band 4 pay scale as their counterparts in England, Scotland and Wales."

Medical secretaries provide clerical services for GP’s and intrinsic to the provision of administration within a hospital. The strike is threatening to affect communication between doctors and patients and could cause difficulties with surgery dates.

(DW)(BMcC)