Hospital tells striking junior doctors to leave the picket lines

“This remains our goal and our door is open to talks, but the government must address our concerns around safe working patterns and ensure the contract recognises the long, intense and unsocial hours which junior doctors do”.

Pictured: Dr David Restall on the picket lines outside Chesterfield Royal. Doctors are still providing emergency department cover and every speciality has on-call staff, such as on a bank holiday.

The second one, which is supposed to take place next month, would be a complete walkout – so juniors doctors wouldn’t even step in to provide emergency care if it was needed.

The strike comes amid a row between the British Medical Association (BMA) and the government over plans for a new contract, which Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said will create more seven-day services for patients.

A 27-year-old woman – who wished to remain anonymous – who has been a junior doctor for three years said: “If they are not bringing in any more doctors than the service will be more thinly spread than it already us”.

Some 50,000 junior doctors – who represent a third of the medical workforce – are on strike for 24 hours amid government plans to change pay and work schedules. The Government and the BMA are well aware of the serious impact a full strike could have.

Unite head of health Barrie Brown said: “Unite’s 100,000 members in the health service will be giving the doctors maximum support within the bounds of the law by joining protests outside their working hours and taking to social media to highlight their support”.

The basis for the current round of negotiations is the Government’s offer from early November, including an 11% rise in basic pay for junior doctors.

Dr Johann Malawana, chair of the BMA junior doctors’ committee, said the move by Sandwell and a letter from NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh amounted to “last minute, inept and heavy-handed attempts to bully junior doctors”.

It was not clear how this would achieve the required controls on hours, the union said.

The BMA argues that the proposed changes make the contract “unsafe and unfair” for both doctors and patients as it would also see working hour safeguards scrapped. “We will do everything we can to mitigate its effects but you cannot have a strike on this scale in our NHS without real difficulties for patients and potentially worse”.

Two further strikes are planned, the second of which – on 10 February – would involve a refusal to take part in emergency care.