The NHS in London faces a challenging 48 hours as senior medics walk out as part of planned industrial action prior to the August bank holiday weekend.

Consultant doctors will be taking strike action from 7am on Thursday 24 August until 7am on Saturday 26 August.

This follows the five-day junior doctors strike, earlier this month, which ran from Friday 11 August until 7am on Tuesday 15 August.

During the strike period consultants will only provide staffing levels to cover emergency care. This is different from strike action taken by other clinical groups because no other doctors can cover for consultants. Any planned care delivered by junior doctors or other healthcare professionals will need to be rescheduled. We expect a large number of appointments to be cancelled during the consultants’ strike.

The cumulative total of acute rescheduled inpatient and outpatient appointments and procedures over eight months of industrial action across the NHS in England now stands at 839,327. The industrial action by junior doctors from 11-15 August had an average of 2,842 staff off in London each day.

People who need care should still come forward to access the care they need in the usual way – only using 999 and A&E in life-threatening emergencies and using NHS 111 online and other services for non-urgent health needs. Pharmacies and GPs are unaffected by the strikes so patients can still get appointments and health advice.

Dr Chris Streather, Medical Director for the NHS in London said:

“This planned industrial action comes only ten days after the strike by junior doctors and Londoners will feel its impact significantly.

“The summer is also a period where staff often take annual leave and this, combined with the fact that consultants will stop seeing patients and will also not be able to supervise other medics means major disruption is anticipated. Doctors will only be able to attend to emergency patients.

“Those with life-threatening conditions should always call 999 but we ask Londoners to contact NHS 111 and use their pharmacy and GP practice as a first point of call for non-urgent care.

“If you haven’t been contacted or informed that your planned appointment has been postponed, please attend as normal.”