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  6. Information for the Armed Forces community
  7. Learning disabilities and autism support
  8. Male Fertility Tests and Post Vasectomy Tests (Semen Tests)
  9. Outpatient appointments
  10. Patient Experience
  11. PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service)
  12. Patient systems
  13. Planning your discharge from hospital

Patients and visitors

For our latest visiting guidance, please view our visiting information page

Industrial action

BMA resident doctors have announced strikes from 7am on 17 December until 7am on 22 December.

What if I have an appointment planned during the industrial action?

We will have to cancel some appointments and planned operations to help us keep our patients safe. We know this may be disappointing and concerning for people waiting for treatment and we are sorry this is the case. We will re-arrange appointments as quickly as we can.

We are contacting patients whose operation or appointment has been cancelled.

If you don’t hear from us, please attend your hospital appointments as planned. 

If you have any questions about your planned operation or appointment during this time please call the telephone number included on your appointment letter.

What if I need medical care? 

Our Emergency Departments will stay open for people who need life-saving treatment or emergency care during the industrial action. It's very likely that there will be long waits to be seen if you attend our emergency departments while the industrial action is happening. 

If you need non-emergency medical care or advice, please call the NHS 111 helpline, or visit NHS 111 Online. NHS 111 is available to make it easier and quicker for patients to get the right advice or treatment for their physical or mental health, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

Contact NHS 111 if:

  1. You need medical help fast, but it's not a 999 emergency. 
  2. You don't know who to call for medical help or you don't have a GP to call. 
  3. You think you need to go to A&E or another NHS urgent care service; or. 
  4. You need health information or reassurance about what to do next. 

You can read more information about choosing the right services when you're feeling unwell on the Mid and South Essex ICS website at https://www.midandsouthessex.ics.nhs.uk/health/support. 

Public announcements

If there's anything major that is happening at our hospitals that will affect the care that we deliver to our patients — the latest information will be published on our Public announcements page.

Call for concern

Martha’s Rule (Call for Concern)

Martha’s Rule gives patients and their loved ones the right to request an urgent review if they have concerns about a patient’s deteriorating condition. We are in the process of rolling out Martha’s Rule across our adult inpatient wards. We will be trialling it across our paediatric inpatient wards during spring/summer 2025.

About Martha Mills 

Martha Mills died aged 13 in 2021, after developing sepsis in hospital. She had been admitted with an injury to her pancreas after falling off her bike. Martha’s family’s concerns about her deteriorating condition were not responded to and, in 2023, a coroner ruled that Martha would probably have survived had she been moved to intensive care earlier.