More than 400 operations were cancelled during the latest strike by doctors at a hospital trust, it has been revealed.

Industrial action has also cost University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM) NHS Trust £3.4m so far, hospital bosses heard this week.

The latest national strike period, which took place at the beginning of this month, saw both consultants and junior doctors take action at the same time. The action by members of the British Medical Association (BMA) is part of an ongoing pay dispute with the Government.

A report presented to Wednesday's UHNM board meeting said: "We all respect the right of our staff to strike in order to defend their profession's ability to look after patients in the future. However, the strikes do cause our hospitals, and more so our patients, considerable difficulties and require significant amounts of planning and flexibility from our staff so that we can continue to provide good patient care.

"Unfortunately there was significant disruption to services at County Hospital and Royal Stoke with many appointments and elective procedures either being postponed or rearranged. We apologise to any patients and their families who were affected by this."

This month, 435 operations, 14 day cases and two inpatient procedures have been cancelled (SWNS).

Speaking at the meeting, which took place during the latest strike period, chief executive Tracy Bullock said: "Clearly there has been an impact to industrial action and we have reported each time around the cancellations, the costs of industrial action and the impact on our staff going the extra mile to support that. In terms of October, 435 operations were cancelled, 14 day cases and two inpatient procedures.

"From January to October this year there has been a lot of time, effort and energy put on planning for the industrial action. Some of it is not scheduling people for surgery during strike days where possible.

"We try to reduce the impact on the longest waiting patients. If we have patients who have had long waits (scheduled) on a strike day we will attempt to move the surgery forward."

Non-executive director Leigh Griffin said: "I note this morning NHS England have said urgent heart and cancer care is now being compromised. I'm not sure to the extent we can be assured that's not the case at UHNM."

Chief Executive Tracy Bullock said the Trust tries to reduce the impact on the longest waiting patients (SWNS).

Mrs Bullock responded: "If there us anything that is obvious that will be reported to us. Without a doubt an awful lot of procedures are being cancelled and nationally there is likely to be patients that will come to harm as a result of that."

Medical director Dr Matthew Lewis said: "We know there are long waiting times for some patients. Some patients are at risk of deteriorating while they wait for procedures.

"We are reviewing at the moment so we can see which patients are coming to harm and keeping communication going with these patients effectively. We are contacting them pro-actively so they can contact us if there is any concern."

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