Junior doctors are on strike from 7am on Tuesday 11 April to 7am on Saturday 15 April.

This will have a significant impact on services across our hospitals, particularly as it follows the Easter bank holiday weekend and is during the school holidays when more staff are on annual leave.

We’re working hard to ensure we can cover emergency care throughout the strike; however, we are having to rearrange more than 2,500 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: “For a second month running, we have had to cancel outpatient appointments, diagnostic tests and operations because of strike action. This has affected thousands of patients.

 “I would like to apologise to them and to those who will wait longer in future because we need to rebook these delayed appointments.

“I fully understand why our doctors are taking industrial action and I support their right to strike. They are struggling with the impact of student debt, rising costs of living and a big drop in pay, in real terms. We are not doing enough to encourage doctors in training to stay in the NHS.

“We cannot afford to keep cancelling appointments every month. We have worked incredibly hard to reduce to zero, by the end of March, the number of people waiting more than 18 months for their treatment. This is a brilliant achievement by our Trust.

“Every time there is industrial action, we run the risk of moving backwards. We need to see proper negotiations between the government and unions on junior doctor pay and a suspension of strike action.”

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 under considerable strain which means if you do not need emergency care you will face very long waits.

Your local pharmacist or GP can help treat a wide range of conditions and means you can get seen more quickly; and NHS 111 can advise you if you’re not sure where to get the best care. Find out more on our ‘get the right care for you’ page.