STAFF at Warrington Hospital have walked out on strike following a four-year dispute over pay and patient safety.

Theatre staff took industrial action on Friday afternoon and Monday morning, with further strike action planned for this Friday between 1pm and 5pm.

Unite members voted overwhelmingly for industrial action last month following the long-running dispute, which staff believe could adversely affect patient safety.

New rotas for emergency cover in the hospital's theatres could have a 'significant' impact on the pay of some staff while concerns have been raised over the number of operating department practitioners on-call during nights and on weekends.

Speaking from the picket line, one of the striking workers said: “We’ve had a good turnout and a lot of people have been beeping their horns as they’ve been going past.

“This has been going on now for the past four years, as the trust has been trying to reorganise the department.

“There is obviously an impact on our working lives and pay, but the crux of the issue is patient safety.

“They’ve been trying to close the theatres after midnight apart from really dire emergencies.

“We’re against that because the staff wouldn’t physically be here should anyone need to go up to theatre, and we’ve been campaigning about that for some time.

“We have managed to make some progress on that and they’ve put staff back on at nights, so it’s been a two-way process and now we’re hoping to get the trust back around the negotiating table – to be fair, we’ve come an awful long way with them but there are a couple of sticking points.”

Seven operations were cancelled because of the strike action on Friday and Monday.

Unite has threatened day-long strike action starting next month if no progress is made in negotiations with Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The trust said that it was 'disappointed' that staff had opted to strike, with four offers to staff 'rejected outright' despite claims that Unite had been in favour of the most recent one.

Jan Ross, acting chief operating officer at Warrington Hospital, said: "What we are proposing is safe for our patients, and this has been confirmed by an independent review.

"The trust has so far made four separate offers addressing the 15 separate demands made by staff, and an agreement has been reached on all but one element where staff are seeking a contractual agreement to work no more than one weekend in four.

"The trust cannot agree to this as we must put our patients first, and emergency cover must be provided 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"The trust's final offer remains on the table for now plus a commitment to review the rotas in six months following implementation assessing frequency of weekend and night shifts.

"We sincerely apologise to those patients that have and will be affected by this action and affirm our commitment to continue to negotiate in order to resolve this situation as quickly as possible."