Their union, the British Medical Association, says the plans will lead to a drop in junior doctors’ salaries.
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The letter from the BMA means strike action is still on the cards, with members set to be balloted on taking industrial action, and formal negotiations with NHS Employers will not happen for now.
As well as the doctors who are marching today, a thousand placards bear the names of doctors who are now on shift, and a few of the protesters are carrying white balloons to represent the lost lives of junior doctors, many of whom have died through suicide or road traffic accidents caused by tiredness.
“Third, this contract will not impose longer hours for junior doctors and finally, we will ensure that the great majority of junior doctors are at least as well paid as they would be now”.
Instead of 7am to 7pm Monday to Friday doctors could be expected to work 7am to 10pm on any day.
Mr Hunt said he wanted to remove financial penalties “that force hospitals to roster less at weekends” and was willing to negotiate over safeguards that will stop doctors from working too many hours.
It will end in Parliament Square outside the House of Commons between 5pm and 6pm.
Thousands of junior doctors are also rallying in Belfast and Nottingham.
“Frankly if I was in [their] shoes and I was being told the government is making the kinds of changes that [Lonsdale’s] talking about, I would be very angry as well”.
Dr Anna Warrington, of the protest organising committee, said: “This unprecedented protest brings together healthcare professionals and concerned public to raise awareness of the threat to our NHS from the imposed junior doctors’ contract”.
Mr Hunt has accused the BMA of misrepresenting the Government’s position – and “stoking up quite unnecessary anger”.
“If changes are introduced in Northern Ireland we would envisage an exodus of junior doctors across the border or across the Irish Sea and further afield”, he added. We are reducing the maximum hours a doctor can be asked to work from 91 to 72 hours [a week].
“Junior doctors will not agree to contract changes that risk patients’ safety and doctors’ wellbeing”.
Dr Nerva said many doctors in Cambridge feel the government’s proposals are “unfair, unsafe for patients and doctors and would be damaging for the NHS” and a few have told her they would leave their jobs in the United Kingdom and go overseas. “This event is about explaining our concerns to a wider audience”.
“What we’re trying to do is reduce the balance of pay between weekdays and weekends so that we don’t force hospitals to roster three times less medical cover at weekends”, he said.
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“I am a doctor, I am trained to look at evidence, I have looked at the DDRB review [Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body], I’ve looked at the stuff that the government has put out and I have looked at the way I work at the moment and I can see that I am going to take a pay cut”, he said. [The health service will not be saving] a penny and we have made this clear to the BMA, which is why it is so disappointing.
