NHS Mid and South Essex: Industrial action | Service updates and guidelines

The NHS in mid and south Essex will be working hard to keep people safe during the planned strikes, while delivering the best care possible.

Consultants, junior doctors, radiographers, and hospital dental trainees, will be on strike from Monday 2 October, until Thursday 5 October. This will have a greater impact on services.

The next planned industrial action is from consultant doctors, junior doctors, and hospital dental trainees with 72 hours of continuous industrial action planned from 7:00am on Monday 2 October to 7:00am on Thursday 5 October 2023. Radiographers will be striking for 24 hours, from 08.00am on Tuesday 3 October to 08:00 on Wednesday 4 October.

If you have an appointment, please continue to come forward for the care you need. Please don’t call to check if your appointment is going ahead. You will be contacted directly if your appointment needs to be rearranged.

No-one should put off seeking urgent or emergency care during the strikes and people with serious, life-threatening conditions will continue to be seen at our Emergency Departments.

However, please keep 999 and A&E clear for genuine life-threatening emergencies, and use NHS 111 online or by phone for other urgent care needs or if you’re unsure about whether you should go to hospital. If you are contacting 111, please give as much information as you can, as that will help you get the right support and advice.

Choose the right service for you, when you are feeling unwell

On days when there is strike action, people should only call 999 if it is a medical or mental health emergency.

During strike action local NHS services will prioritise resources to protect emergency treatment, critical care, neonatal care, maternity, and trauma, and ensure we prioritise patients who have waited the longest for elective care and cancer surgery.

Extensive work is ongoing to ensure we provide as safe a service as possible, however there will be fewer ambulances on the roads. While they will still be able to respond to emergencies, our teams must prioritise life-threatening incidents – so other emergencies may not get an ambulance on strike days.

Patients should take advice from 111 or 999 call-handlers on whether there are circumstances where it is suitable for them to make their own way to hospital.  During strike days, it is likely call handling teams will be very busy.  Anyone with non-urgent care should first seek help from NHS 111 online.

Visit our Choose Well page for information on local services including local pharmacies that can help with a wide range of minor health issues and advise if another NHS service is needed.  Search Find a Pharmacy for information about your nearest pharmacy opening times.

Visit the NHS England website for further information about the strikes including answers to Frequently Asked Questions.

The NHS continues to face high demand and industrial action means these services will be under more pressure, so it is vital that people use the services available appropriately.

Information relating to junior doctor industrial action only

GP practices will be open but some of our teaching practices that employ junior doctors as part of their training may be short staffed and this will impact on the availability of appointments. When patients contact practices, reception teams will continue to arrange for people to be supported by an appropriate member of staff who can meet their needs, including practice nurses or physiotherapists. They may also book patients into appointments at community pharmacies for some minor illnesses.

Junior doctors make up around half of all doctors in the NHS. They are qualified doctors who have anywhere up to eight year’s experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their chosen speciality, or up to three years in a GP practice. Junior Doctors work across the whole NHS in hospitals and Emergency Care and in GP practices.