Industrial action update: junior doctors’ strike
Posted: 9 March 2023
Junior doctors at our trust will participate in national industrial action for 72 hours from 7am on Monday 13 March to 7am on Thursday 16 March.
This is after members of the British Medical Association (BMA) voted in favour of strike action.
Please be assured that we are working hard to ensure disruption to services is minimised at all our hospitals; Watford General Hospital, St Albans City Hospital and Hemel Hempstead Hospital.
For information on how our services will be affected, please see below:
If you need emergency care
Regardless of any strike action taking place, it is really important that patients who need urgent medical care continue to come forward as normal, especially in emergency and life-threatening cases.
Patients needing urgent treatment will be prioritised.
However, where appropriate, please use other non-hospital services for advice and treatment during this time, such as:
- NHS 111: online www.111.nhs.uk or call 111
- your local GP practice
- walk-in centres
- pharmacies
If you come to our emergency department and the clinical team there thinks this is not the best service for you, you may be redirected to another service.
If you have a planned procedure
If you have surgery booked at one of our hospitals during the 72-hour strike period, you may be contacted directly to rearrange your procedure.
If we have not contacted you, please attend your appointment as planned.
If you’re concerned and feel you need to speak to someone, please contact
your clinical team using the contact information on your appointment letter or
our patient advise and liaison service (PALS) at westherts.pals@nhs.net or by phone
on 01923 217198 (from 8am – 4pm, Monday to Friday).
If you have an outpatient appointment
If we need to rearrange any outpatient appointments on the days of the strike, we will contact you directly to let you know.
If we have not contacted you, please attend your appointment as planned.
If you are an inpatient
We will have consultant cover in place across all our sites for the duration of the strike, along with cover by nursing staff and allied health professionals.
Please note, if the strike is cancelled patients should attend as
normal.
Ends
- For media enquiries, please contact the communications team on: 01923 436280 or email: westherts.communications@nhs.net. For out of hours media enquiries please call the Watford General Hospital switchboard on 01923 244366 and ask for the on call communications manager.
- West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves people from across Hertfordshire, north London and further afield. It operates from three hospitals; Watford General, St Albans City and Hemel Hempstead. The trust has a catchment area of over 500,000 people and is one of the largest employers locally, with around 5,000 staff and volunteers.
- For more information about our hospitals, visit www.westhertshospitals.nhs.uk. You can also join our followers on Twitter (twitter.com/westhertsNHS) and find us on Facebook (facebook.com/westhertsNHS).
