Health bosses say Junior Doctor strikes will put more strain on the service in the run-up to Christmas
It comes as members of the British Medical Association begin a walkout at 7 o'clock today, lasting till Saturday
As Junior Doctors across Lincolnshire and Newark walk out for 3 days of industrial action - Health bosses say this will cause increased strain in the service,
It comes as Hospitals across the county are already facing winter pressures like an increase in respiratory illnesses and trauma care.
Rebecca Neno is the Winter Director for Lincolnshire's Integrated Care Board and tells us how things change this time of year:
"So I mean typically over the winter period, we see increased demand within the NHS. In Lincolnshire, we actually see that in summer as well because of our summer surge and visitors that come to our East Coast. But they look very different and they profile very differently.
"So winter is all about respiratory viruses. To be honest, they are usually the root cause of people being sick over the winter, and you know that includes COVID, we've got influenza in in the mix too and a range of others as well.
"Obviously, if you're older, or, immunosuppressed, those coughs and colds can be much more serious for some individuals, and they then require NHS services. So that's something that happens every winter, something that we respond to each each year, and try to keep people as safe as they can whilst they're coming into into our services."
Rebecca added that the impact of strikes can vary:
"Fundamentally any strike action within the NHS, regardless of the professional group, has an impact upon the way we deliver services. The way we organise ourselves is we protect urgent care, so all of our emergency departments, our ambulances etc. will remain so if you need an urgent intervention on the day, that will happen.
"Unfortunately, the way we do that is we have to cancel a range of planned care services. So that is those with scheduled operations, and those with outpatients appointments for instance. We minimize that as much as possible because we don't want to do that, but there will be an impact.
"My message to people is that, if you have not been contacted, please continue to attend. You will be contacted if we need to cancel or rearrange your appointment. Other than that, please just continue to to attend as you usually would, and think wisely about the services you're using, particularly during those those periods of strike action."
Junior doctors are to take to picket lines from 7am on December 20th to 7am on December 23rd in a major escalation in the bitter dispute over pay.
Hospitals leaders have described the walkouts as their "worst fears realised" as the grapple with a rising number of people needing help with winter viruses, particularly norovirus.
In the run-up to the strikes, NHS England urged hospitals to try and see time-critical patients before the walkout and try to reduce bed occupancy.
Officials called on hospitals to "maximise normal working days" between the strike and a second walkout on January 3 - when many staff will already have booked leave to be with families over the festive period.
The second planned strike will be the longest in NHS history, lasting six full days.
The NHS usually sees a rise in the number of people in hospital in the two weeks after Christmas - which could be due to people delaying seeking help so they can spend Christmas with their loved ones.
On Tuesday, NHS England's national medical director warned that the strikes would "put the NHS on the back foot" as it enters its most pressurised time of year.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis warned that the strike would cause "huge disruption".
The NHS has said emergency and urgent care will be prioritised during the strikes and that "almost all" routine care will be affected.
In a joint statement, BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs, Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, said:
"We had hoped that after a much-improved tone and approach from the new Health Secretary, Victoria Atkins, we were close to a solution to this dispute.
"We were encouraged by her insistence last week that even after our mutually agreed deadline had passed and we were forced to call new strikes, we had still not heard her 'final offer'.
"We have spent the last two weeks awaiting this final offer in the hope it would be the long-awaited credible offer we could put to our members. Unfortunately, we are still yet to hear it."
They called on Ms Atkins - also the Louth and Horncastle MP - to arrange talks "regardless of whether strikes are scheduled".
The BMA said that junior doctors have been offered a 3% rise on top of the average 8.8% increase they were given in the summer.
But the union said the cash would be split unevenly across different doctor grades and would "still amount to pay cuts for many doctors".
Consultant doctors from the BMA in England have reached a deal with the Government which will see consultants earn more money from January 2024, although it will not be paid until April 2024.
England's top hospital doctors are now voting on the deal, which would see them get a pay rise of between 6% and 19.6%.
Specialist, associate specialist and specialty doctors (SAS) in England have also come to an agreement, which is being put to members.
The Department of Health and Social Care has been approached for comment.