EAST Lancashire NHS Hospitals Trust has been forced to reschedule 85 appointments at its main Blackburn and Burnley sites because of yesterday’s four-hour strike by staff over pay.

Tens of thousands of members of nine unions walked out nationwide in the second day of industrial action over the government’s refusal to accept a recommended one per cent pay rise for all staff.

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Emergency and birthing services were unaffected.

North West union bosses said the strike, from 7am to 11 am, was solid across the region including at the Royal Blackburn, Burnley General, Clitheroe Community and Accrington Victoria hospitals.

The county’s mental health Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust and the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust were also affected.

EHLT operations director Gill Simpson said 28 outpatient appointments – including fracture clinic, obstetrics and midwifery – seven inpatient admissions and 50 ultrasound appointments had to be rescheduled.

She said: “The staff who took industrial action were in the main pathology and radiology, eight per cent of our total of around 7,400.”

Lancashire Care personnel boss Emma Forsyth said: “There was minimal disruption, with less than five per cent of staff taking part. A small number of routine clinics in East Lancashire were rearranged.”

North West Ambulance operations director Derek Cartwright said the trust received half the calls usually expected while 94.5 per cent of its vehicles in Lancashire remained on the road.

Peter Dales, UNISON East Lancashire Health Branch chairman, said: “Hundreds of staff braved the cold conditions to take part. All of the unions that balloted their members took part and the turnout was solid.”

A Department of Health spokesman said it could not afford the pay rise without risking frontline jobs.