Junior doctors’ walk-out delays hospital treatment for Welwyn Hatfield patients

The strike was held despite calls by the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt who described the action as “completely unnecessary”.

Dr Cummings is now working at a GP practice in Washington, and went to support his colleagues at the picket line at South Tyneside hospital.

Dr Heather Watson, from GPs Behind Closed Doors on Channel 5, has written a piece for the Daily Mirror explaining the reasons behind the first strike by hospital doctors in 40 years.

“At the end of the day our main concern is that being asked to do this will mean becoming unsafe for our patients”.

Rebecca Hardcastle, an orthopaedic gynaecologist, said none of the doctors wanted to take part in the strike, but they were left with little option.

The doctors – medical-school graduates who are training to be consultants or family practitioners – staged a first strike Tuesday, providing emergency care only for 24 hours. Only doctors in England are taking action.

Now hospitals that overwork junior doctors face financial penalties, but these would be removed under the new contract.

The change would offer an 11 percent pay raise, but the premium offered to doctors working on weekends and late hours on weeknights would disappear.

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

Some believe that an agreement might be reached before the next industrial action planned by the doctors.

The new lyrics address some of the problems junior doctors are attempting to highlight with their protests – in particular, proposed contract changes.

Junior doctors representatives will resume negotiations with the Department of Health and NHS Employers in a bid to avert two days of further strike action planned in a dispute over new contract terms.

A BMA regional spokesperson said: “We would like to thank the many members of public who showed their support”.

He said: “There are some serious issues about patient safety and recognition of junior doctors’ contributions that need to be sorted here and the very fact that government documents refuse to acknowledge those issues is one of the things that makes the dispute more hard to resolve”.

Speaking on Wednesday morning Mr Hunt said: “I hope they (talks) succeed”.

The plans also seek to extend doctors’ hours to include weekend and evening working.

The doctors were due to provide only emergency care for 24 hours from 0800 GMT, followed by a similar 48-hour stoppage starting January 26.