Advice for RD&E patients during the junior doctors' strike

Patients are being asked to attend appointments at Exeter's RD&E as usual during the junior doctors' strike (April 26/27), unless they have been told otherwise.

The walkout will see emergency care withdrawn for the first time in the bitter dispute over new contracts.

The strike starts at 8am on Tuesday until 5pm the same day.

It then resumes at 8am on Wednesday and continues until 5pm that day, when it ends.

There have already been four strikes this year, yet for the first time in NHS history this will be an all-out strike.

Junior doctors will not be providing A&E care, but senior doctors will be providing emergency cover.

Jeremy Hunt has appealed directly to junior doctors to call off the strike, saying ‘no trade union has a right to veto a manifesto promise voted for by the British people’.

He told the Commons: "We should not lose sight of the underlying reason for this dispute, namely this government’s determination to be the first country in the world to offer a proper patient-focused seven-day health service."

"Regrettably, over the course of this pay dispute, 150,000 sick and vulnerable people have seen their care disrupted.

"The public will rightly question whether this is appropriate or proportionate action by professionals whose patients depend on them."

However, the head of the BMA Dr Mark Porter defended the two-day strike, saying the government "utterly refuses to listen to the concerns of junior doctors".

A spokesman for the RD&E said: "During the planned periods of industrial action by Junior Doctors, we would like to remind all of our patients they should attend any planned appointments as normal unless they have been contacted by the Trust to say their appointment has been postponed."