NHS staff in Bradford, including nurses, paramedics, midwives and radiographers, staged a four hour walk out today as part of a national strike over pay.

Picket lines were manned outside Bradford Royal Infirmary, St Luke's Hospital and Airedale General Hospital, as well as other locations in the district, as various trade unions staged joint action.

The action was in protest at the Government's decision not to accept a recommended one per cent pay rise for all NHS employees.

Today's strike action took place between 7am and 11am, and is followed by staff working to rule - six days for Unison members and eight weeks for Unite members - meaning they take their allotted breaks and will not work any overtime.

It follows similar action last month with the dispute involving more than 400,000 NHS staff nationally, who have been hit by pay freezes or below-inflation rises since the coalition came to power in 2010.

Gary Cleaver, Unison regional officer for health, said the level of support on picket lines in Bradford had been high.

"The support from members, members of the public, councillors and patients has been really good.

"The strike is over the Government's refusal to implement the recommendations of the pay review which is a one per cent rise across the board.

"Our members have seen their pay, in real terms, cut by up to 17 per cent during the length of this Government, and they have had enough.

"They are going to be facing tough choices this winter - eating or heating."

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s director of human resources, Pat Campbell, said: “Bradford Teaching Hospitals, like other public sector organisations, faced industrial action today.

“Contingency plans were in place to minimise any potential disruption and ensure that patient safety and levels of care were not compromised.

“All essential services, such as emergency and urgent surgery, continued as normal.”

Stacey Hunter, director of operations at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We worked with our colleagues and union representatives to ensure patient safety, care and welfare were maintained during the industrial action.

"A small number of patients had routine or non-urgent appointments rearranged but we had plans in place to ensure that any urgent and emergency care, including care for any women going into labour, was able to continue and they worked well. We apologise to anyone who has been affected.”

Ian Brandwood, Executive Director of Human Resources at Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said: “Our robust plans have ensured that the impact of national industrial action on patient care was minimised.

“I would like to thank our trade union representatives who agreed a range of contingency plans to ensure those patients who needed emergency care the most were looked after and to our staff for responding to our most seriously ill and injured patients during the four-hour strike period. We would also like to thank the public for using the 999 service wisely and keeping ambulances available for life-threatening emergencies.

“Following a short period of recovery, services returned to normal very soon after 11am.”

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