A THIRD of Oxfordshire GP practices are expected to take part in industrial action today.

Twenty-seven of Oxfordshire’s 82 practices informed health bosses they had GPs who would only be seeing emergency cases, with 49 more surgeries saying they would not be joining the day of action.

NHS Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, which oversees GP practices in the two counties, said last night it was still awaiting a response from six surgeries ahead of this morning’s planned action, the first by doctors in almost 40 years.

Last night hospital chiefs were still refusing to say how many doctors were taking part in the move and how many operations and appointments had been cancelled as a result.

They also refused to say how many patients had been contacted ahead of the action but stressed all of those affected had been.

The British Medical Association (BMA) announced last month members intended to take part in industrial action against pension changes.

NHS Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire said: “Each GP practice will need to decide how it will operate on the potential day of action and let NHS Oxfordshire know of any expected disruption to their normal level of services.

“Patient safety is paramount and urgent and emergency care will always be provided. This covers any treatment which the doctor believes cannot be safely postponed to another day.

“GP practices will be responsible for notifying their patients of any changes to their services.

“Doctors joining the Day of Action will not be carrying out non-urgent routine operations, outpatients’ appointments, diagnostic tests or GP consultations but will be in their normal place of work to deal with emergency cases.”