The NHS in the West and East Midlands is urging patients to continue coming forward for care as thousands of resident doctors are expected to go on strike.

Industrial action begins at 7am tomorrow (Friday 14 November) until 7am on Wednesday 19 November and hospital teams across the West and East Midlands are working round the clock to ensure disruption is minimised for patients.

Plans are in place to continue life-saving care as normal, while hospitals are working to keep routine operations going as much as possible – only rescheduling appointments in exceptional circumstances in the interests of patient safety.

The NHS is warning that industrial action comes at an already challenging time for the service as winter pressures such as rising flu cases and staff absences will have an impact.

During the last round of strikes in July, the NHS maintained the majority of operations, tests and procedures despite the disruption, as well as dealing with urgent and emergency cases.

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 Jess Sokolov, NHS Midlands Medical Director, said:

 “We are urging the public in our region to continue coming forward for their appointments over the next few days unless they are contacted by the NHS and told otherwise.

“Another round of industrial action comes at a challenging time for the NHS at the start of winter, with flu cases rising earlier than usual and more staff likely to be absent due to illness. Despite this, staff across the NHS in the West and East Midlands are working extremely hard to maintain care and limit disruption.

“Inevitably some appointments won’t be able to go ahead as planned but we are doing everything possible to keep this to a minimum – and the last round of industrial action showed that thanks to a strong collective effort we were able to keep the vast majority of services going for patients.

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

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.