Health leaders are calling on patients to use 999 or A&E for life-threatening conditions only as the region's NHS gears up for more industrial action by junior doctors.
Junior doctors in the British Medical Association (BMA) will be taking strike action across the country for five days, between 7am on Thursday, June 27 and 7am on Tuesday, July 2
Dr Adrian Clements, medical director at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (NCIC), said: "The strike action will inevitably cause some disruption, but we have detailed plans in place to make sure services run safely, and we're asking everyone in the region to do their bit.
"Urgent and emergency services will still be open for people who really need them, and if you're seriously unwell it’s important that you get help.
“For anything else, please contact NHS 111, your GP practice, an urgent treatment centre or a community pharmacy. All these services will be open as usual during the industrial action."
Junior doctors make up around half of the doctors in the NHS. They are qualified doctors who have up to eight years' experience as a hospital doctor, or up to three years in general practice.
Dr Clements said: "Once again, we will prioritise emergency and urgent care, and we ask people to only attend emergency departments if they have a life-threatening injury or illness. Patients who attend with minor problems should expect a long wait and may be asked to use a different service.
"Some appointments will need to be rescheduled, but you should attend as planned unless you hear otherwise. There's no need to check, as your hospital will contact you if your care needs to be postponed."
"All our hospital trusts are working hard to ensure we have appropriate staffing in place during the strike. Our thanks go to all our teams who we know will be working incredibly hard to ensure patients get the care they need.
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“The public can really help by using NHS services carefully. Emergency departments should only ever be for serious or life-threatening problems. For everything else, there are lots of other NHS services you can use.”
The BMA has previously called for a 35 per cent pay rise for junior doctors which they say would make up for ‘15 years of below-inflation wage rises’ which has caused a ‘recruitment and retention crisis’ in the NHS.
After the July 4 election, the British Medical Association (BMA) said it had given Government “a final opportunity to make an offer and avoid strikes” but “this opportunity has not been taken up”.
The BMA has been urged to call of the strikes by figures from across the political spectrum.
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