Junior doctors and consultants in England will jointly undertake four days of strike action in September and October.
Consultants will go on strike on 19 September and will be joined by junior doctors the next day, the first day of coordinated action. But when consultants return to work on 21 September, juniors will strike again that day and the day after.
October will see similar action. Consultants will be joined by their junior colleagues for three days of strike action on 2, 3, and 4 October.
If there are changes to an appointment you have on one of the strike days, we will have contacted you. However, if you did not hear from us, please attend your appointment as usual.
In the event that industrial action is called off, we will make every effort to reinstate any appointments that have been cancelled as quickly as possible but you should only attend if we contact you to let you know a cancelled appointment has been reinstated.
The safety of our patients and service users is our top priority and we have plans in place to ensure that anyone who needs our care will continue to receive it.
Our Emergency Department and Maternity Services will continue to operate throughout the strike period, although you may experience longer waiting times in our Emergency Department, we apologise if this is the case.
As always, if you need urgent care but it isn't life threatening, please “think 111 first” before visiting an accident and emergency department. Either visit 111.nhs.uk or call 111 to access the NHS care you need in the right place. A trained advisor will assess you and direct you to the most appropriate place to receive care.
We hope that the industrial dispute is resolved as soon as possible, but apologise in the meantime for any disruption it may cause.