THE NHS has issued guidance ahead of a walkout by junior doctors which will impact services at Musgrove Park Hospital.

As part of national strike action, junior doctors will ‘down tools’ for five days, up to Tuesday July 2.

Issuing a statement, a spokesperson for the NHS Somerset Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, warned some appointments may be cancelled as a result: “This is part of an ongoing dispute between junior doctors and government and will affect both Musgrove Park and Yeovil District Hospitals.

“Junior doctors make up around half of all doctors in the NHS. Junior doctors are qualified doctors who have up to eight years' experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.

“During these strikes, other doctors (including consultants and other specialist doctors) will still be working.

“Patient safety is our top priority, and we are working with teams and colleagues across the trust to maintain patient care as much as possible and provide the most essential services on these days.

“During this time, it is likely that there will be a reduction in elective activity, and this may mean some planned appointments and procedures will need to be rescheduled. We will only reschedule appointments and procedures where necessary and will rebook immediately, where possible.”

Patients were advised to attend appointments if planned - and that they would be contacted if the appointment is impacted by strike action.

They were also urged to come forward “as normal” in the event of a medical emergency: “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 - when someone is seriously ill or injured, or their life is at risk.

“We would like to encourage anyone with a non-urgent care need to first seek help from NHS 111, before attending our hospital sites.”

The walkout is the latest in a long-running dispute over junior doctor’s pay. In a statement a spokesperson for the doctor’s union said: “We made clear to the Government that we would strike unless discussions ended in a credible pay offer.

“For more than 18 months we have been asking Rishi Sunak to put forward proposals to restore the pay junior doctors have lost over the last 15 years – equal to more than a quarter in real terms. 

‘When we entered mediation with Government this month we did so under the impression that we had a functioning government that would soon be making an offer. Clearly no offer is now forthcoming. Junior doctors are fed up and out of patience.

‘Even at this late stage the prime minister has the opportunity to show that he cares about the NHS. It is finally time for him to make a concrete commitment to restore doctors’ pay. If during this campaign he makes such a public commitment that is acceptable to the BMA junior doctors committee, then no strikes need go ahead.”