Junior doctors protest in Exeter city centre during national strike

Junior doctors across south west London and north east Surrey protested in the freezing cold against new contracts they fear would endanger patients in the first doctors’ strike in 40 years on Tuesday.

He said: “The right thing to do is to sit round the table and talk to the Government about how we improve patient safety and patient care, not these very unnecessary strikes”.

The talks will be reconvened following the first of three days of planned action, which ended at 8am this morning.

“We have a responsibility to protect the NHS and our patients but we also have to protect the junior doctors who will be affected by these unfair changes to our contracts”.

Significant disagreements still exist between the BMA and the government over pay, safety, and working hours, according to a position paper by the BMA.

Two further strikes are planned – the second of which would involve a refusal to take part in emergency care – but it is hoped talks could break the stalemate.

Hospitals across England are providing emergency care only after thousands of junior doctors went on strike – and are urging all but those in desperate need of medical care to stay away.

Nick Carver, chief executive of the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, said: “We have tried and tested contingency plans to deal with a wide range of disruptions, including industrial action”.

“I do not think we can give that guarantee at this point”, he said.

Ministers offered an 11% pay rise in basic pay past year – but doctors claim that reductions in out-of-hours pay will leave them with less money overall.

It added: “All junior doctors providing ward-based care need to attend work”, saying it would “be unsafe to deliver care to all our in-patients with a reduced workforce”.

There are more than 55,000 junior doctors in England, a position covering people who have just graduated from medical school through to those with more than a decade of experience.

As a result, the BMA has said doctors would be paid less for working unsocial hours than they are under the current contract, with those working in specialties with a high proportion of weekend and evening working, such as emergency medicine, affected disproportionately.

She told the Bury Times: “We really want to thank the public and all of the other NHS staff who have shown us their support”.

“This has only been made worse by yesterday’s last minute, inept and heavy-handed attempts to bully junior doctors lawfully taking industrial action back into work”.