BLOOD test analysts at the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust are to escalate their industrial action by launching an all-out three week strike.

The move by biomedical scientists is part of a long-running pay dispute.

Their union Unite claims the trust has backtracked on a 2019 agreement to upgrade the 21 staff to a higher grade on their specialist pay scale.

The scientists, who analyse patient blood samples at the Royal Blackburn and the Burnley General Teaching Hospitals, have boycotted night, weekend and late shifts since May 7.

Now their union has revealed they will strike continuously from 00.01 on Monday May 31 until 06.59 on Monday June 21.

Unite regional officer Keith Hutson said: “Our biomedical scientists, who have had years of training and are highly skilled, are ratcheting up the industrial action with three weeks of strikes from May 31 which will adversely impact on how quickly patients’ samples can be analysed.

“This will increase pressure on whether the accident and emergency department at the Royal Blackburn Hospital will be able to be open during the first three weeks of June as there will be no biomedical scientists on duty to analyse samples.

“This could mean ambulances with patients being sent to other hospitals.

“The trust management has behaved with ‘bad faith’ in not honouring the agreement it made at the end of 2019.

“The quickest way to solve this dispute, so there is no delay in patients receiving their sample results, is for the management to honour what it agreed to.

“We are not prepared to see our members forego back pay which, in some cases, amounts up to £8,000. For some of our members this issue has been a running sore since 2010.

“Now is the time for the trust management to do the right thing before strike action escalates further."

Kate Quinn, ELHT's director of human resources said: “This action is the latest phase of an ongoing dispute which has been a long and difficult process for all involved.

“I would like to reassure members of the public that our emergency care services will continue to be provided during this course of action.

"Contingency measures will be in place to ensure all urgent tests will be processed in the usual timely manner.”