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Unite Strike Action 3-6 September

HSL have been informed of Unite’s decision to call strike action at a number of our facilities in the London area. We have been engaging with recognised trade unions since February and remain ready to meet at any time to resolve matters constructively. Our services are currently fully operational and we have plans in place to ensure that we continue to provide safe, high-quality care for patients while supporting our employees.  

We are now preparing for the potential industrial action from 8.00am on Wednesday 3 up to 8.00am on Saturday 6 September and wish to ensure we are working with all our partners, employees and customers to maintain strong relationships and keep disruption to a minimum.

Our priority remains straightforward: to protect patient care and make sure urgent and emergency testing carries on without disruption. 

We have robust business continuity plans in place and these will be activated for the duration of the strike. Measures include redeploying trained senior staff, securing additional resources including overtime support, ensuring key equipment is fully maintained, and having the capability to move samples to other laboratories if needed including our facilities located outside London. 

If patients contact you with concerns about their appointments, please advise them to still attend, unless they are contacted by the relevant provider (Royal Free / UCLH / Whittington Health).

Daily sitreps will help us escalate and resolve issues quickly and updates will be communicated to all partners following these to ensure all services are kept informed of any changes.

Please be aware:

In order to manage demand, we will triage services by urgency.  This could lead to a moderate impact on routine outpatient and other non-urgent testing.  These samples will be safely stabilised and processed after the action concludes, with recovery plans in place.  

From Royal Free London

  • You can continue to electronically order tests as normal however, for routine tests please keep the collections of the routine samples at a minimum until after the 5 September.
  • For blood test appointments, any flagged as urgent will be processed via the usual urgent pathway. All routine blood tests will be centrifuged (stabilised, refrigerated and held) to be processed as soon as capacity is back within the laboratories.

From UCLH

  • GP phlebotomy appointments will be capped during the period with the ability to increase if staffing levels allow for a full service to be run. Urgent patients will be seen as normal practice.

From Whittington Health

  • We have closed routine blood appointments to reduce demand over the period of the strike on Swiftqueue, but patients should be directed to book their appointments as usual. All pre-booked blood test appointments over the strike period are scheduled to go ahead as planned.

We won’t know the full picture until the morning of 3 September once staffing levels are clear. From then, services will be adjusted as required and you will receive regular updates from us via emails from the NCL ICB primary care team. We are also activating our industrial relations dispute plan, which sets out governance and escalation arrangements. 

You have our assurance that we will continue to communicate openly and do everything possible to minimise disruption. 

 

For Information – Wider service impact and triage.

  • GP phlebotomy – some disruption possible
  • Routine requests may be delayed by up to one day; appointment slots reduced on strike days, but existing bookings are being maintained.
  • Routine outpatient / community workflows – moderate impact likely. Work will be stabilised and processed post-strike, with recovery plans in place.
  • Consumables and supplies provision – no significant impact anticipated. Additional resources and pre-planning to reduce potential impact
  • Life-critical & emergency testing – no expected impact (A&E, ICU, neonatal, and other acute settings). Protected through prioritisation, extra staffing, and diversion to other labs if needed.
  • Urgent inpatient workflows – minimal expected impact (oncology, chemotherapy, acute infectious disease). Supported by additional resources and fast-track processes.
  • Routine inpatient workflows – will be processed as normal but there may be delays
  • Elective surgery – minimal expected impact
  • Specialist services – no significant impact anticipated

Customers will be advised directly if affected.

Published: Sep 1, 2025