Essex hospital appointments postponed in January strike

Strikes are planned from 7am on January 3 until 7am on January 9 in a row over pay. 

The strike will mark the longest walkout in NHS history. 

A spokesman for the Mid and South Essex NHS Trust said: “We estimate that 96 inpatient and day case surgeries and around 774 outpatient appointments will be postponed during the six days of industrial action.

“Many more appointments will not be scheduled during those times so the impact is likely to be higher.”

NHS England figures reveal how over the four-day junior doctor strike from December 20 to December 23, the trust saw more than 1,000 acute patient appointments rescheduled.

More than 200 Mid and South Essex NHS Trust staff were off work on each of the first three days of the December strike.

Strike - Junior doctors on the picket line at Colchester Hospital in April, 2023 (Image: Newsquest)

Out of the rescheduled 'acute' appointments, 137 were inpatient and 903 were outpatient appointments.

In a statement, BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said: “It didn’t need to be this way, and next week’s action can be avoided.

“The Health Secretary says she wants to ‘get this done’  and appeals to us to return to negotiations, yet we never walked away. It is her Government that refuses to talk to us while strikes are scheduled."

Striking - picket line outside Southend Hospital on a previous strike day (Image: Newsquest)

They said the Government could have avoided “unnecessary disruption to patients if they had presented a credible offer”.

They said: “We are clear that we will talk at any time, right up to the 11th hour, and if talks result in a credible offer we can put to members, then further strikes can be averted.”

Patients are again being urged to only call 999 or go to A&E in an emergency, and to call 111 for other health issues.