Advice for patients during industrial action by Resident Doctors

Resident doctors (formerly known as junior doctors) will begin five days of industrial action from 7am on Friday 14th November, finishing at 7am on Wednesday 19th November.

University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust has been busy putting plans in place to ensure patient safety across all our services.

If we have not contacted you, please attend your appointment or procedure as planned. The Trust will let you know if your treatment needs to be rescheduled.

Urgent and emergency services will continue to be provided, although we ask that patients choose services appropriately and take simple steps to help ensure care is available to patients who need it most. This includes using 111 online as the first port of call for health needs and only using 999 if it is a life-threatening emergency.

Kara Maitra, Chief Operating Officer at UHCW NHS Trust, said: “We are aiming to maintain as much routine work as we possibly can but in some instances, we may need to make decisions that enable us to focus completely on our seriously ill/injured patients and allow us to keep urgent, emergency care services running.

“We’d like to extend our apologies to anyone affected during this time. As with previous strikes, we’d really appreciate the support of our local communities.

“It is really important that patients who need urgent medical care continue to come forward as normal, especially in emergency and life-threatening cases. However, if it is non-life threatening, please think about which is the most appropriate service for your needs.”

Patients can help themselves and others by:

• Ordering repeat prescriptions in plenty of time so they don’t run out of medication or other essential items
• Avoiding hospital if suffering Norovirus-type symptoms such as diarrhoea and vomiting, or with cold or flu-like symptoms
• Keeping a well-stocked medicine cabinet at home including painkillers, indigestion remedies and diarrhoea tablets
• Using the NHS Emergency Prescription Service if a regular medication runs out completely
• Familiarising themselves with nearby NHS services which can offer help both in and out-of-hours; these include all Walk-In and Urgent Treatment Centres and a number of local pharmacies. NHS111 remains available 24 hours a day, 365 day a year for medical advice and signposting, online or over the phone.

For support and advice on when to call 999 and when to go to A&E, please click on the relevant links.