Doctors back on duty amid fresh pleas to end strikes

Disputes like this, to be honest, have happened over the last five or 10 years as contracts have been updated to reflect the need to provide 24-hour services, seven days a week.

Doctors were also quick to reassure people that patients were safe while they were on strike and promised to act if there was any emergency situation.

Andy Gibson, a newly qualified doctor, who was at Warwick Hospital today said: “It’s worth saying that we’ve not been on strike for 40 years, but this is such a big issue for us that we’ve had to take this action”.

The next proposed strike is a 48-hour one beginning on 26 January.

The government says it’s any shift which includes three hours between 11pm and 6am while the BMA says it’s any shift that includes hours after 10pm.

Up to 150,000 patients could see hospital operations and appointments cancelled if talks between doctors’ unions and officials fail.

Hundreds of city medics took part in the 24-hour walkout on Tuesday in a national dispute over a new contract.

“We’re greatly sorry to all of the patients who have been inconvenienced, but ultimately we hope it will make the Government start listening to us”.

The BMA also has a range of other concerns, including on protecting doctors working in some specialties. Doctors are still providing emergency department cover and every speciality has on-call staff, such as on a bank holiday.

NHS England said only 39 percent of a possible 26,000 junior doctors reported for work Tuesday, and that more than 3,400 procedures had to be postponed.

Fellow junior doctor Xenia Tonge (29), argued that the proposed changes to contracts would have a serious affect on newcomers to medicine.

A spokesman for the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) has announced that talks between the Government and the British Medical Association (BMA) would resume on Thursday at 10am, continuing on Friday.

A spokeswoman from West Suffolk Hospital said: “We have an excellent relationship with our junior doctors and worked closely with them and our consultants in the run up to the planned industrial action to put contingency plans in place”. An “all-out” strike is planned for 10 February.

One junior doctor has told Pirate FM it would mean she would effectively be paying to go to work, once she has factored in child care.

The Government wants to cut the number of hours classed as unsociable, meaning these doctors will earn less money for evening and weekend work.