Junior Doctors Stage Second Walkout This Year
Thousands of junior doctors on Merseyside have joined others across England in their second national 24 hour walkout in the space of a month.
Members of the British Medical Association left their posts at 8.00am this morning - as their long running dispute with the Government over new contracts rumbles on
The BMA says Saturday is not a normal working day and wants junior doctors to be paid more.
Dr Johann Malawana, from the BMA, said "Doctors in this country would never take industrial action without just cause, and it's clear that the population of the country are supportive of their doctors.
"They don't want to see their doctors out on industrial action, we don't want to be out on industrial action, what we ask for the Government to do is to stop playing politics with the NHS and with junior doctors and actually address our concerns."
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has suggested he will bring in the new contract for junior doctors unless agreement is reached within the next few weeks.
Dr Emma Carrington, a surgical trainee taking part in the walk out at Northwick Park Hospital in north London, said: "We are here today to give Jeremy Hunt a clear message - we will not allow him to spin to the public about what this contract really means.
"We will not allow him to scaremonger our patients into not coming to hospitals at weekend.
"We will not allow him to impose on us a contract which is unfair and unsafe and driving junior doctors away.
"It is just not going to happen. We are going to be here and we are going to beat him."
Analysis by NHS England estimates 1,150 planned inpatient procedures have been cancelled as well as 1,734 day procedures.
Dr Anne Rainsberry, national incident director for NHS England, said: "We will monitor the situation across the country to ensure plans are in place, and people are ready to respond to any significant increases in pressure in any region over the period of this strike."
A new poll by Ipsos Mori and the Health Service Journal has found that two thirds of adults in England support the strike.
And 64% of those questioned said the Government is more at fault for the dispute continuing this long and 13% said the blame lies with junior doctors.
Some members of the public dropped off packets of biscuits for medics on picket lines.
The hashtag #Iamthedoctorwho was trending on Twitter, as junior doctors visually made their case for industrial action by stating their occupation and their reason for walking out.
In response, general members of the public who had received help - some, life-saving treatment - in hospital explained why they were supporting the strike action under the #IAmThePatientWho hashtag.
Celebrities including Harry Potter author JK Rowling - who is married to a doctor - comedian and actor Sanjeev Bhaskar and singer Alison Moyet also showed their support for the walkout on social media.
Rowling posted a graphic on Twitter which read "I support the junior doctors #save the NHS".
She added: "Speaking as a doctor's wife.."
Bhaskar wrote: #JuniorDoctorsStrike The alternative is an underpaid undertrained Dr who's been up for 20 hrs on caffeine treating my child in an emergency."
Moyet said: "Junior Docs already do work weekends.We don't need them working even longer hours,we need more Docs. Gov. knows this. #JuniorDoctorsStrike."
However, controversial columnist Katie Hopkins expressed her opposition to the strike and wrote: "Junior doctor trying to explain why they need more cash to work a Saturday. 'It's very complex'. No love. It is simple. I diagnose greed."
And while there was huge support for the industrial action on social media, many members of the public were unsympathetic.
One wrote on Twitter: "I wonder how the 1000s of patients with cancelled appointments/operations feel about the #JuniorDoctorsStrike."
Another said: "Do I get paid more for working Saturday or Sunday? Nah."
The Department of Health said it was "disappointing" the strike had gone ahead.
"We have now agreed the vast majority of the contract detail with the BMA but it is a great shame they have broke the agreement we made at Acas on the outstanding issue of Saturday working and pay for unsocial hours," it said in a statement.
Our reporter Adam Phillips has been speaking to junior doctors on the picket line outisde the Royal in Liverpool.