Junior doctors’ strike: up to 150000 operations and appointments at risk

However, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt insists that a planned 11 per cent uplift to basic pay will leave all but one per cent of them earning the same or more, and that his plans for proper weekend staffing of hospitals to avoid unnecessary patient deaths will ease pressure on junior doctors.

The walkout comes after talks between the union and government failed to reach agreement on the contract.

The NHS, which delivers free care for all and accounts for a third of government spending on public services, is typically one of the most important issues for voters during elections and one which is often regarded as an Achilles’ heel for Cameron’s Conservatives.

During today’s 24-hour strike, which began at 8am, junior doctors will only provide emergency care.

Speaking to the public, striking junior doctors tried to put across their concerns over having someone who is in charge of making medical decisions in the fifteenth hour of their shift.

NHS medical director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh told hospital bosses that doctors should be ordered off the picket line if hospitals become unsafe.

An additional strike where junior doctors will only offer emergency care will take place between Tuesday, January 26 and Thursday, January 28.

Junior doctors’ dispute: What next? . They understand the reason why we took industrial action and it was the right thing to do, for both ourselves and our patients.

The key sticking point is the changes to weekend working, which would see junior doctors lose their extra pay for “unsocial hours” on Saturdays. The NHS doctors are concerned about a new type of contract which the government says will improve healthcare at night and at weekends but medics say would drastically reduce their pay.

The action, until 8am tomorrow, will be followed by a 48-hour walkout starting on January 26 and for nine hours on February 10.

“Whilst we have planned to maintain as many services as possible, we have needed to postpone some appointments and procedures and those patients have been contacted”.

Another striking doctor, who wished to remain anonymous, said they had received the letter saying the situation had been ongoing for some days.

“We have been working with hospitals and other NHS providers across the country to ensure we can continue to protect the safety of our patients and provide the urgent services they need. Because of that we chose to require trainee doctors allocated to ward work to attend Sandwell during today’s strike”.