THE NHS is urging patients to continue coming forward for care with thousands of resident doctors expected to go on strike.

Industrial action begins at 7am today, Friday, November 14 until 7am on Wednesday, November 19 and hospital teams across the country are working round the clock to ensure disruption is minimised for patients.

Plans are in place to continue life-saving care as normal, while hospital chiefs have been told to keep routine operations going as much as possible – with 95% of elective activity aiming to go ahead with appointments only rescheduled in exceptional circumstances in the interests of patient safety.

NHS bosses are warning it comes at an already challenging time for the service with flu cases set to peak immediately after industrial action.

During the last round of strikes in July, a robust approach by the NHS to preserve services and maintain patient safety saw over 10,000 extra patients receive their care compared to the previous five days of industrial action in summer 2024.

The NHS maintained the vast majority of operations, tests and procedures despite the disruption, as well as dealing with urgent and emergency cases.

The public are advised to attend any planned appointments scheduled during the strikes unless they have been contacted to reschedule.

Primary and urgent and emergency care services will continue to be available for those who need them.

The public should use 111 online as the first port of call for urgent but not life-threatening issues during industrial action so that they can be directed to the best place for their needs.

Patients who need emergency medical care should continue to use 999 or come forward to A&E as normal.

Professor Meghana Pandit, NHS England National Medical Director, said: ‘It is frustrating and disappointing that we are facing another round of industrial action at a challenging time for the NHS, with flu cases rising earlier than usual and more staff likely to be absent due to illness.

‘Despite this, staff across the NHS are working extremely hard to maintain care and limit disruption.

‘The public should continue to come forward for their appointments over the next few days unless they are contacted by the NHS and told otherwise.

‘Inevitably some appointments won’t be able to go ahead as planned but we are doing everything possible to keep this to a minimum – and the last round of industrial action showed that, thanks to a strong collective effort, we were able to keep the vast majority of services going for patients.

‘In an emergency the public should still dial 999, and otherwise use 111 online, your local pharmacist or GP’.

This latest action will be the 13th round of strikes from resident doctors since March 2023, resulting in 54 days of disruption to NHS services.

Resident doctors, previously named junior doctors, make up around half of all doctors in the NHS and have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice