Hospitals issue 'take relatives home' plea amid strikes misery

HOSPITALS yesterday urged the public to take their relatives home as wards came under increasing pressure from the junior doctors' strike.

- Hanna Geissler

And, as a row erupted over pleas for striking medics to return to the most hard-pressed hospitals, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins reminded their union the NHS "doesn't just belong to the junior doctors' committee".

A&E units warned they were "extremely busy" on the second day of the six-day walkout, with patients told to expect "significant waits".

But several NHS trusts across the country called on families to pick up loved ones who had been discharged.

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust asked people to "collect relatives ready to go home to free up beds for those needing emergency care".

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust, said: "Collecting family and friends from hospital as soon as they're ready to be discharged helps to free up beds for those who need them. Please do what you can to help bring them home."

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And South Warwickshire University NHS Trust urged people to help a relative or friend.

A number of hospitals say they need striking doctors back at work and have asked their union, the British Medical Association, for local exemptions, known as derogations.