In a statement to MPs yesterday, Hunt said he understood that some doctors may disagree with the government over the seven-day NHS plans and particularly the introduction of a new contract.
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A spokesman for the BMA said: “Doctors want to do their utmost to protect patients, which is why the BMA has given trusts several weeks’ notice to plan for this action”.
There is a wide public support for the strikers, with passers-by stopping to shake hands with picketing doctors and wishing them luck.
This is the first time in the history of the NHS that a group of doctors has taken part in a full walk-out.
“You can disagree with the government’s vision for a seven-day NHS but is it proportionate or appropriate to withdraw emergency care from vulnerable patients, because that’s what’s happening today”.
Over 700 planned hospital appointments have been cancelled across Lincolnshire as a result of the two days of action.
A third person tweeted: “Junior doctors!”.
The industrial action is being carried out over a row between the British Medical Association (BMA) and the government, which is imposing a new contract on doctors.
“Our workforce is already stretched enough as it is, but over the next year with this contract being imposed it will make it even more unsafe for patients, which the people making these decisions seem to forget that’s what it’s all about, patient safety”.
Earlier this month, the president of the Royal College of Physicians, Sir Richard Thompson, warned that care of medical patients was under threat because overworked doctors kept missing crucial signs of illnesses in patients.
‘These features of the doctor’s professional role and responsibilities are clearly distinct from the obligations of the Secretary of State under the National Health Service Act 2006, and the NHS bodies to which those functions are devolved, to secure the provision of health care services for patients’.
She added: “Doctors want to play political point scoring”.
“We have got a letter signed by 260 consultants telling us to go on strike”. We are asking that patients with minor ailments like a sprain, a cut or a sore throat should seek treatment elsewhere.
It’s the second day of Junior Doctors’ historic walkout in their battle with the government over their contracts.
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“Jeremy Hunt’s handling of this dispute has been utterly shambolic”, Labour’s health spokeswoman, Heidi Alexander, said in an e-mailed statement.
