A 24-hour walkout by junior doctors will start at 8am Wednesday February 10. Pic: Jungho Choi

As junior doctors prepare to stage another 24-hour walkout from 8am on Wednesday February 10, Croydon Health Services is postponing non-urgent hospital appointments.

A total of 31 routine operations and 216 non-urgent outpatient appointments scheduled for Wednesday has been cancelled, to be rescheduled for a later date.

Jayne Black, Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive at Croydon Health Services NHS Trust, said: “We are really sorry to have to again cancel planned appointments and operations. We know how upsetting and frustrating this can be for our patients, but we must prioritise our services on the day for anyone whose care could be compromised if it was delayed.

“Every appointment will be rescheduled.  We are calling all of our patients affected to agree another appointment for as soon as possible,” she added.

Heath Secretary Jeremy Hunt has condemned the strike action, calling it “disappointing”.

BMA junior doctors committee chair Johann Malawana said: “The Government’s entrenched position in refusing to recognise Saturday working as unsocial hours, together with its continued threat to impose a contract so fiercely resisted by junior doctors across England, leaves us with no alternative but to continue with industrial action.”

Hospitals in Lewisham, Tower Hamlets and Hackney had not announced their plans for handling the strike action at the time of publication.