Junior doctors are on strike from 7am on Monday 13 March to 6.59am on Thursday 16 March. This will impact on services across our hospitals.

We’re working hard to ensure we can cover emergency care throughout the strike; however, we are having to rearrange more than 2,000 outpatient appointments and over 200 non-urgent surgeries.

We are prioritising patients who need urgent care, including cancer patients and those who have experienced longer waits.

If your appointment or surgery is being rescheduled, we will contact you directly. If you do not hear from us, please come in as planned.

Our Chief Executive, Matthew Trainer said: “Services at our hospitals will be affected during the junior doctors’ strike next week, in some cases to a serious extent. While both hospitals will be open, we are cancelling a large number of outpatient appointments and planned surgery so that senior doctors can help us keep core emergency and inpatient services running.

“We are working hard to try to cover A&E at both sites throughout the strike. We have more gaps in our rotas than we would like, and we would ask the public to think very carefully before they attend Queen’s or King George hospitals. People will face longer waits due to reduced staffing, and people who are not unwell enough to need emergency care may be asked to go elsewhere.

 “I have sympathy for the concerns junior doctors have over their pay and conditions. They are a hugely valuable part of our workforce and are the future of the NHS.”

Junior doctors are a large part of our medical team and range from doctors who have recently finished medical school, to those with several years of experience. They help our hospitals run smoothly by undertaking a range of roles including ordering tests or x-rays, referring patients to other medical teams, discharging patients and reviewing sick or deteriorating patients.

While our A&Es will remain open during the strike it’s likely they will be extremely busy. Those not needing emergency care will face long waits. Our ‘get the right care for you’ page has lots of information on where you can get the right care.