Don't put off treatment during doctors' strike, NHS tells patients

When a six-day strike by resident doctors in England starts on Tuesday, people should not delay seeking the medical attention they need. The NHS has warned that people should avoid seeking medical attention.

Senior doctors and resident doctors who were not involved in the investigation are expected to be able to function, according to officials, and patients should come out as normal and attend appointments unless they are contacted.

The 15th walkout in a fight over pay and career choices comes at the end of the long bank holiday weekend, and NHS representatives warn it could be "particularly difficult.

After talks to bring an end to the three-year-long war that had begun at the end of March, the new resident doctors, who had previously been known as junior doctors, were called.

Thousands of doctors will go on strike from 07:00 BST on Tuesday to just after 07:30 on Monday 13 April.

The strikes were disappointing, according to Health Minister Wes Streeting, who said that the aim was now to safeguard patients and employees by minimising disruption to the health care.

During the resident doctor strikes in December, he maintained that the NHS delivered nearly 95% of planned work.

Despite NHS England's promises that the vast majority of patients' services would be operating during strike times, the doctors' union, the British Medical Association (BMA), said the strike "would cause chaos".

Many senior doctors will be covering for us," Dr Jack Fletcher, chairman of the BMA's resident doctors committee, said, "We know they are also drained and demoralised as we are.

Prof Ramani Moonesinghe, the NHS' national clinical director for critical and perioperative care, said there are "tested and proven methods for ensuring that we can keep all of our health care services safe against industrial action.

The NHS is still open for business, and there are already a number of people who can help you,

she told BBC Radio 4's Today show.

If you have a planned appointment, or if you have been told specifically that it has been postponed or cancelled,

you should attend as you'd like to.

If you have an emergency or urgent situation, you should do exactly the same thing you'd do,

says the A&E if you need emergency services or attend your local pharmacy if your condition is less urgent.

Nearly half of physicians in the NHS are residents, and two-thirds of them are BMA members.

The government cancelled a significant portion of its offer to them by withdrawing 1,000 more training places following the strikes.

The Department of Health and Social Care said the proposals were no longer financially or operationally appropriate but that the change would not have any effect on the overall number of doctors in the NHS, as the posts were expected to be created from existing short-term positions.

In addition to the additional training posts, the government had also agreed to fund some out-of-pocket costs, such as exam fees, as well as guaranteeing faster wage progression through the five salary bands that span training. The pay points start at just below £39,000 and then climb to nearly £74,000.

The BMA ended the talks, claiming that the pay progression component had been watered down at the last minute.

It also coincided with the government accepting the recommendations of the independent pay review body that all physicians, including resident doctors, should receive a 3. 5% pay rise from this month.

Although the salary rise has raised resident doctor salaries by a third over the past four years, the BMA claims it is still a fifth less affordable rate than it was in 2008, when inflation is factored in.

RPI, the union's inflation measure, is higher than other measures. It claims that it does this because the government uses inflation to determine interest rates on student loans.