Northern Care Alliance (NCA) has declared a critical incident over three days of strike action by theatre staff this week.

The action, which was announced by UNISON last week over outsourcing overtime management, will take place at theatres at Salford Royal, Fairfield General Hospital, Rochdale Infirmary and the Royal Oldham Hospital on Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week.

Gertie Nic Philib, chief people and strategy officer at the NCA, said: ‘First and foremost, we are sorry for the impact this situation will have on our patients.

‘Theatre colleagues at NCA have been receiving a higher rate of pay for additional work than other people at the same level across the trust. We want everyone to be treated fairly and paid consistently for any extra hours they work, in line with arrangements across Greater Manchester and nationally.

‘Our senior doctors have reviewed the patients who need emergency, urgent or time-critical care … including cancer care. We want to make sure these operations can still go ahead. We asked UNISON colleagues to support the staffing arrangements needed for those patients, but this has not been agreed.

‘We have declared a critical incident so we can get extra support and make sure patients who need urgent surgery can get to theatre.

‘We are prioritising urgent, emergency and time-critical care. This means some less urgent operations and procedures will need to be postponed or rearranged. We know this will be difficult for the people affected.

‘We are contacting affected patients directly about any changes to their surgery, treatment or appointment. Patients do not need to call us to check.'

UNISON North West regional organiser Kevin Dolan said: ‘UNISON gave the required notice ahead of industrial action and agreed Christmas Day-level cover throughout the strikes. Any failure to plan safely for the action lies solely with the trust.  

‘The union's always willing to negotiate. It was NCA that walked away from talks and hasn't indicated any intention of returning.'

The critical incident comes after NCA responded to a Channel 4 report it failed to adequately investigate allegations patients died in surgery.