You may have seen in the news that the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has announced its members will be taking strike action on Thursday 15 December and Tuesday 20 December.
If you are coming to one of our hospitals on these dates, please make sure you attend your hospital appointment or operation unless you hear from us to advise you otherwise.
Anyone who needs urgent or emergency care should also continue to come forward.
Services will continue to operate as normal while our teams work through our response to the planned industrial action.
Nick Hulme is Chief Executive of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Colchester and Ipswich hospitals, as well as community services in east Suffolk and north Essex.
He said: “We will be planning for all eventualities to keep our patients safe – that is our top priority.
“We value all our staff and understand the importance of good pay and conditions for individuals and their families, as well as for wider NHS staff retention and recruitment.
“While pay is a matter for Government and the trade unions, we want to see a resolution as soon as possible to make sure we can continue to focus on delivering high quality and compassionate patient care to anyone in our communities who needs it.”
ESNEFT Chief Executive Nick Hulme