Unison members on 24-hour strike

5 October 2011 Last updated at 06:00 ET

Health and education workers are on strike across Northern Ireland

Thousands of health and education workers have joined picket lines across Northern Ireland in a 24-hour strike to protest against budget cuts.

The Department of Health said that 2,400 appointments or procedures have been cancelled because of the action by Unison members.

Health Minister Edwin Poots said the strike would hurt the “ill and vulnerable”.

It began at midnight and will affect all health workers except doctors.

Some school staff are also taking part.

Most of the appointments cancelled are for outpatients but some day procedures and elective surgeries have also been postponed.

Mr Poots said the strike action was “avoidable and unnecessary”.

He said 87% of Unison members did not vote for strike action and he encouraged them to return to work.

The health minister said it was not “good enough” that 1,000 operations would be disrupted.

Staff are striking over large cuts in the health budget

Patricia McKeown of Unison said the situation was “critical” and needed to be put under the spotlight.

First time

She defended the union’s right to walk out.

“Many of the people taking industrial action are doing so for the very first time in their lives,” she said.

“They’ve kept the services going in some very, very severe conditions and they are coming to the end of their tether, and they are saying, if we’re going to have something here in four years’ time when these massive budget cuts have all kicked in, it’s not going to look the way it does today.”

The majority of outpatient clinics and elective surgery scheduled for Wednesday will not take place, but cover for emergencies will be in place.

Members of the public should check with their trust to see if their service was still available.

Sean Donaghy, chief executive of the Northern Health Trust, said while he could understand why colleagues in Unison were taking strike action over funding cuts, it would have a “significant” effect within the trust.

“Each trust, I’m sure, will have its own arrangements to make,” he said.

“For example, we’re seeing hundreds of patients affected who would normally be assessing our hospital services.

“It has been necessary for us to cancel a range of services, given that staff are not available for those services, as they have opted to take part in the strike action for the day.”

The education budget is facing a shortfall of £300m over four years, whilst health is facing cuts of £2.3bn.

The Northern health trust has set up an information line for patients concerned about their appointments.

They can check what services have been affected on 028 2563 3758 or at the web: www.northerntrust.hscni.net

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