Biomedical scientists at Scarborough Hospital have walked out in a strike over ‘completely unmanageable’ workloads with two more strike days scheduled in October.

On Monday, September 30, the first of three days of planned strike action saw blood scientists at Scarborough Hospital and Bridlington Hospital walk out over “unsustainable workloads” that Unite members said were putting patients at risk.

Microbiologists at York Hospital are also taking part in the industrial dispute with strike action taking place today (Sept 30), Monday, October 7, and Friday, October 11.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “It is a disgrace that the York and Scarborough Trust is risking the safety of patients. Our members have been forced to take this action as a last resort to highlight the unsustainable workloads they are forced to undertake.

“They will have the full backing of their union in this fight not only for their own workplace conditions but to improve patient safety in Yorkshire.”

The York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said it had plans in place to deal with the disruption to services and it was “working closely with our staff and union representatives to ensure we continue to provide safe care for our patients during any period of industrial action”.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), a spokesperson added: “We will continue to prioritise urgent samples.

“Routine testing will however be impacted, and we apologise to patients who may be inconvenienced by this.

“We are planning, as far as possible, to run other pathology services as normal.”

However, the Trust did not respond to a question about the scientists’s concerns over workloads.

According to Unite, which has around 60 members who conduct scientific testing on blood and other human matter for thousands of patients across the Trust, the closure of a biomedical laboratory at Scarborough Hospital two years ago “led to increased pressure on other units within the Trust”.

The union’s regional officer Chris Daly said: “Our members regularly report having to cope with workloads that are completely unmanageable.

“Instead of recruiting more staff, the Trust has closed laboratories and has overseen an exodus of highly trained senior scientists – this cannot be allowed to continue.”