Junior doctors industrial action at Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust
The BMA and HCSA have announced junior doctors’ strikes running from 06:59 on Tuesday 11 April until 06:59 on Saturday 15 April.
This is four days of strikes coming immediately after a four day bank holiday weekend. The days leading into and immediately after bank holiday weekends are always challenging for the NHS and as these strikes also occurring during the Easter holiday period this will add additional pressures in covering pre-booked annual leave as staff spend time with their families.
Who will be taking industrial action?
We expect the majority of our junior doctors to join in this period of industrial action. Previous action by junior doctors saw around 28,000 staff off due to industrial action across the country.
Junior doctors are qualified doctors who have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty. Around half of all doctors in the NHS are junior doctors.
How will this affect our services?
We are taking steps to prioritise and maintain safe and effective services for our inpatients and those needing urgent and emergency care.
Unfortunately, this does mean we, like other NHS Trusts, will need to reschedule some operations, treatments and outpatient appointments to accommodate those patients with the most urgent clinical need.
We will contact all patients affected directly. Please continue to attend appointments unless you are contacted and told otherwise.
Urgent and emergency care
Regardless of any strike action taking place, it is really important that patients who need urgent medical care continue to come forward as normal, especially in emergency and life-threatening cases - when someone is seriously ill or injured, or their life is at risk.
You can help us manage this challenging period by making sure you are seeking help from the most appropriate health services and only attending A&E for serious accidents and emergencies. If you are unwell, see NHS 111 online for 24/7 advice about the most appropriate care for your needs or call NHS 111.