Bedfordshire patients to be impacted by NHS industrial strikes the week before Christmas

More NHS strikes could impact patients in Bedfordshire in the week before Christmas.

Junior doctors across England are taking further strike action from Wednesday (December 20), 7am, until 7am the following Saturday.

The move is expected to cause widespread disruption to operations and emergency care, days before Christmas.

This comes after record demand across the country for emergency care, recent rises of winter viruses in hospitals such as flu, norovirus and Covid, and at a time when some staff would traditionally take annual leave.

Junior doctors make up around half of all doctors in the NHS and are qualified, working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.

Nationally, industrial action has impacted more than a million acute inpatient and outpatient appointments across the NHS. In the east of England, when junior doctors took industrial action over three days in June there were almost 15,000 inpatient and outpatient appointments disrupted, during which up to 2,116 members of staff were not working each day.

Dr Edward Morris, regional medical director for the NHS in the east of England, said the strikes would put the NHS under ‘extreme pressure’ over Christmas.

He added: “This ongoing, unresolved industrial action between the government and junior doctors continues to severely impact patients and staff.

“Hospital staff are working really hard to ensure as many patient appointments go ahead as possible during this strike, but unfortunately there will inevitably be significant disruption. We will be prioritising urgent and emergency care to protect patient safety and ensure those in life-saving emergencies can receive the best possible care.”

Dr Morris advised patients should use the online service or call 111 for everything ‘other than life and limb threatening situations’. Pharmacies and GPs will continue to provide advice and support over the festive period.

Those with appointments should attend as planned unless told otherwise. Where appointments are cancelled, patients will be offered an alternative date as soon as possible.

Further industrial action is planned by the unions representing junior doctors early next year, from 7am on January 3 to 7am on January 9.