The NHS is facing another significant round of industrial action later this week and over the weekend as groups of resident doctors across the east are expected to walk out from 7am on Friday 25 July until 7am on Wednesday 30 July.

Hospitals and local NHS teams throughout the region have been preparing as usual ahead of this latest round of strikes and have plans in place to minimise disruption to patient care and ensure life-saving services continue.

This will be the twelfth strike from resident doctors since March 2023, resulting in 49 days of disruption to NHS services – equivalent to almost ten working weeks of industrial action over this period.

NHS England has asked hospital chief executives to keep routine operations going to the fullest extent possible during this round of strikes and only reschedule appointments and other activity in exceptional circumstances to safeguard patient safety.

The NHS is therefore advising people to continue to attend any planned appointments they have scheduled over the strike period unless they are contacted to reschedule.

Primary and urgent and emergency care services will continue to be available for those who need them. The public should use 111 online as the first port of call for urgent but not life-threatening issues during industrial action so that they can be directed to the best place for their needs. Patients who need emergency medical care should continue to use 999 or come forward to A&E as normal.

Adam Cayley, Chief Operating Officer for NHS England in the East, said:

“Industrial action comes at a high cost to patients and the NHS workforce.“Although industrial action may result in some appointments not going ahead as planned, the NHS remains absolutely focused and ready to maintain day-to-day services so we ask people to plan to attend their NHS appointments unless they are contacted directly.

“While the previous round of industrial action by resident doctors at the end of June last year saw 6,656 elective appointments and procedures rescheduled in the East of England, we still continued to provide appointments and procedures during the period, thanks to the hard work of senior medical and wider NHS staff.

“These strikes come at a time when the NHS is beginning to address waiting times and improve services for patients and staff. It is unfair that local patients across the east face further delays in care as a result of this period of disruption.

“Since strikes began at the end of 2022, the cumulative total of hospital appointments rescheduled in England is now close to 1.5 million (1,486,258) across the NHS.”

Resident doctors, previously named junior doctors, make up around half of all doctors in the NHS and have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.