Kingston Hospital has warned the public emergency care will be prioritised during this week's four-day walkout from its junior doctors.

This morning at 7am (April 11) saw junior doctors across the country begin a 96-hour strike which is set to last until 7am on Saturday, in what NHS leaders say is likely to be the most disruptive strike in the history of the organisation.

Kingston Hospital has said the strike for the rest of this week 'will have a major impact on our services and our Emergency Department (A&E) will be very busy'.

Residents are being advised to contact NHS 111, their GPs and local pharmacies for help and advice, whilst the hospital has also suggested the urgent care clinic at Teddington Memorial may be able to offer swifter treatment.

A statement from the hospital said: "Approximately 75% of outpatient appointments that were due to take place at Kingston Hospital on the days of strike action have been rescheduled and the hospital's Emergency Department is expected to be particularly busy.

"Anyone whose appointment needs to be cancelled due to strike action will be contacted and appointments will be rescheduled as soon as possible. People should continue to attend appointments as planned, unless they are told otherwise.

"It is important that people continue to come forward for urgent care during the strike action, especially in an emergency and in life-threatening cases."

The hospital's Chief Medical Officer, Dr William Oldfield, said: "Our staff are working hard to minimise disruption to care and treatment … but we know that will be very challenging.

"We would like to apologise to our patients for the disruption and thank them for their understanding.

"During the days of strike action, our Emergency Department will be prioritising patients that need care most urgently.

"If you attend our Emergency Department, waiting times will be longer than usual, and if we feel you could be seen elsewhere, we may redirect you. Our staff may also be more stretched than usual and so we ask everyone to remain kind and compassionate."

Junior doctors on strike until Saturday (Credit: BMA)

Junior doctors have been asking for a 35% pay rise to return the figure to the level before a series of below inflation increases.

Chief executive of the NHS Confederation, Matthew Taylor, said the likely impact of the strike is likely to be 'heartbreaking' and called on both sides to end their "battle of rhetoric".

He said there is 'no question' this strike will be more disruptive than the 72-hour walkouts by NHS staff last month, which led to 175,000 cancelled appointments.

Mr Taylor told BBC Breakfast: "It's depressing that there seems to be no movement at all from the two sides of this dispute over the last few days.

"We should consider asking the Government and the trade unions to call in Acas, the conciliation service, to provide some basis for negotiations, because if anything the positions seem to have hardened over the last couple of days."

He said: "These strikes are going to have a catastrophic impact on the capacity of the NHS to recover services.

"The health service has to meet high levels of demand at the same time as making inroads into that huge backlog that built up before Covid, but then built up much more during Covid.

"That's a tough thing to do at the best of times, it's impossible to do when strikes are continuing."

Asked whether everyone who needs urgent care this week will get it, he said: "There's no point hiding the fact that there will be risks to patients, risks to patient safety, risks to patient dignity, as we're not able to provide the kind of care that we want to."

Health Secretary Steve Barclay has rejected the pay demand as 'unrealistic' and said their strikes had been planned to 'cause maximum disruption'.