Patients urged to still attend appointments amid doctor strikes

Patients in eastern England were encouraged to attend their meetings while the strikes of resident doctors continue.

The industrial action on remuneration will continue until 07:00 BST on Wednesday, July 30, but patients should always attend their appointments, except in contact with reprogrammed, said the NHS in England.

Adam Cayley, the chief of NHS England in the East, thanked the staff for his “hard work on weekends” and “continuous efforts in the coming days”.

The last series of strikes began on Friday and patients who need emergency medical care were invited to use 999 or go to A & e as usual.

Local NHS hospitals and teams in the whole region said they worked together to minimize patient care disruptions.

Mr. Cayley said: “Although it is inevitable that strikes mean that certain appointments and procedures cannot go ahead as planned, it is thanks to the enormous efforts of the NHS teams in the region that we continue to provide as much as possible.

“Our advice remains to attend your appointment, unless you have been contacted directly to reprogram.

“If it is an emergency, you must compose 999 or attend your A & e as usual. Otherwise, you should use 111 online as the first stopover port, or your local pharmacist or general practitioner.”

This is the 12th strike of resident doctors since March 2023, which, according to the NHS England, had resulted in 49 days of disruption of its services, which is equivalent to approximately 10 weeks of work of industrial action during this period.

Resident doctors, previously appointed junior doctors, represent approximately half of all NHS doctors.

They had up to eight years of experience in work as a hospital doctor or up to three years in general practice.

Since the start of strikes at the end of 2022, the cumulative total of meetings at the reprogrammed hospital in England was close to 1.5 million in the NHS, the public body said.