Junior doctors have gone out on strike today in a bitter row over pay and conditions.
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Junior doctors at Chesterfield Royal Hospital say planned new contracts being imposed by the Government are bad for medical professionals and risky for patients.
Across the country, up to 45,000 junior doctors were part of the industrial action, with nearly 4,000 operations and 17,500 outpatient appointments cancelled.
The striking doctors argue patients will be put at risk by the government’s policies, while the government says the National Health Service needs more flexibility to deliver services on weekends.
Anne Rainsberry of NHS England said patients can be confident they will receive safe care.
Placard-waving doctors surrounded every major hospital in Yorkshire on Tuesday to show their discontent over Government’s proposed changes to their working contracts, which the BMA sees as “unsafe and unfair”.
Medical Director at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Dr Rob Parry said: “Our hospitals remain busy and continue to be on serious internal incident status”.
It comes after the breakdown in negotiations over junior doctor contract reform led thousands of trainees to strike during a 24-hour period of reduced “emergency care only” staffing from Tuesday at 8am.
“The hospital has robust and extensive plans in place for all the emergency patients who will be attending between 8am on the 12th January to 8am on the 13th January”.
There is a potential for two more strikes in coming weeks if the BMA fail to reach an agreement with the Government – a 48 hour strike on January 26, and a full withdrawal of labour on February.
Some Junior Doctors in the West Midlands refused to return to work despite an order from their NHS trust at Sandwell General Hospital in West Bromwich.
But doctors believe it will cut their pay in the long term and remove safeguards that prevent them from working excessive hours.
“Doctors don’t normally go on strike, because we want to spend our time caring for our patients”.
But emergency departments will be operating as normal and patients with unaffected appointments are urged to turn up as normal.
“Meet the Doctors” events are also being held outside Walthamstow Central and Leytonstone tube stations throughout the day, where the public can ask doctors any questions they have about the strike.
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Nick Hulme, chief executive of Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust, said junior doctors’ views of the situation were being “skewed” by “misinformation” about the dispute on social media.
