His message was echoed by David Cameron, who told ITV News, that the strike action was “the wrong thing to do”.
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The protesters waved banners with slogans including “Stop that Hunt from killing our 24/7 NHS”, “We can’t be stretched any thinner” and “Honk if you support your junior doctors” as they made their views known.
JUNIOR doctors across Gloucestershire are staging their second day of strike action.
Dr Anne Rainsberry, national incident director for NHS England, said: “The NHS exists to help the sick and people in need and we’d like to sincerely apologise to the more than 100,000 people facing disruption during this strike alone, as well as the thousands more affected over the last few months”.
Junior doctors say they are striking with a “heavy heart” as they stand on the picket line.
The industrial action saw a full withdrawal of labour between 8 am and 5pm both yesterday and today – the first time in the history of the NHS that this has taken place.
While there have been previous strikes by the junior doctors recently, this was the first ever one that involved no emergency cover.
Mr Hunt said the Government will not be “blackmailed” into dropping its manifesto pledge of improving seven-day services as the dispute with the British Medical Association over a new contract continues.
However, the strikes have led to more than 100,000 routine appointments and almost 13,000 non-emergency operations being cancelled or postponed.
Last Sunday, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt rejected suggestions of trialling the new contract, and insisted he would impose it.
He tweeted: “Second day of this sad episode in NHS history”. We ask the public to continue to use it wisely while the action is ongoing.
“Whereas out of hours between nine to five we may have just one junior doctor who may be significantly more junior than myself who is maybe covering as many as six to eight wards”.
He said: “Our consultants are all covering us, I don’t think I would be here if all of our consultants hadn’t stepped forward to support us”.
Robert Courteney-Harris, chief executive of The University Hospital of North Midlands Trust, said: “Anyone who is scheduled to have an operation or an outpatient appointment should still attend unless they are contacted in advance”.
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Fellow BMA official Namal Rupasinghe agreed: “None of us want to do this today but there are safety measures in place in hospitals so none of our patients will come to any harm”.
