The NHS is urging patients in the East of England to continue coming forward for care despite many resident doctors expected to go on strike from today.

Industrial action begins at 7am today (Friday 14 November) until 7am on Wednesday 19 November, with hospital teams across the East of England and the rest of the country working around the clock to ensure disruption is kept to a minimum for patients.

Plans are in place to continue life-saving care as normal, while hospitals are keeping as many routine operations going as possible – with 95% of elective activity aiming to go ahead, and appointments only rescheduled in exceptional circumstances in the interests of patient safety.

This period of industrial action comes at an already challenging time for the health service with flu cases set to peak immediately after industrial action.

The public are advised to attend any planned appointments scheduled during the strikes unless they have been 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.

Dr Edward Morris, Regional Medical Director for the NHS in the East of England, said:

“It is especially difficult to be facing another round of industrial action by resident doctors at what’s undeniably a challenging time for the NHS – with flu cases across the country rising earlier than usual, meaning more NHS staff are likely to be off sick.

“Despite this, teams across the East of England are working hard to maintain care and limit the disruption to patients.

“If you have a healthcare appointment over the next few days, please attend as normal unless you have been contacted by the NHS and told otherwise.

“Whilst it is inevitable some appointments will not be able to go ahead, we are doing everything we can to keep this to a minimum – and the last round of industrial action showed that we were able to keep most services going for our patients.

“In an emergency the public should still dial 999, and otherwise use 111 online, your local pharmacist or GP.”

During the last round of strikes in July, a robust approach by the NHS to preserve services and maintain patient safety saw over 10,000 extra patients across England receive their care compared to the previous five days of industrial action in summer 2024.

The NHS maintained the vast majority of operations, tests and procedures despite the disruption, as well as dealing with urgent and emergency cases.

This latest action will be the 13th round of strikes from resident doctors since March 2023, resulting in 54 days of disruption to NHS services.

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.