NHS England says more than 5,000 operations have been cancelled as result of the latest walkout, which began at 8am and will last 48 hours
1.01pm BST
Thanks for reading and for all your comments. We’re going to wrap up the blog now as most pickets finish at lunchtime. Here is a summary of the latest developments:
12.51pm BST
Junior doctors in Manchester are marching from Manchester Royal Infirmary to Piccadilly Gardens.
Junior doctors gathering outside the Manchester Royal Infirmary for a march to Piccadilly #JuniorDoctorsStrike pic.twitter.com/AMh6jgIRgc
Save our nhs #JuniorDoctorsStrike pic.twitter.com/X6VEVdyaXg
12.37pm BST
Rebecca Pinnington sends this update from Whitehall.
Sophia Koumi is a mental health nurse, and Daniel Langley is training to be a mental health nurse at King’s College London. They are at the DoH today in solidarity with junior doctors from the #BursaryOrBust campaign, in protest of the government’s removal of NHS bursaries for trainee nurses.
If the government goes ahead with removing bursaries, nursing students like me will essentially be paying, in some cases upwards of £65,000, to work 48 hours a week.
The reason we became doctors, nurses, mental health professionals, is because we want to help people, we want to work for the NHS. This is why we have to fight for it - it’s so important.
At the moment, nursing is such a diverse course with lots of older students, carers, people from minority backgrounds - my fear is that we’ll massively lose that diversity. It’s difficult to become a nurse, it’s hard work, and I do worry people will see it as too much to take on with a debt as well.
Protesters deliver petition to DoH #JuniorDoctorsStrike pic.twitter.com/jXdpvyRbRF
12.34pm BST
A fire engine has turned up on Whitehall in support of the junior doctors.
A fire engine has turned up in support of the junior doctors strike, draped with a trade union banner pic.twitter.com/n9DUBcJJq2
More crowds gather outside the department of health, as well as disability campaigners pic.twitter.com/Q3Sq05tw7t
12.15pm BST
Annie Gouk has been speaking to Victoria McCormack, 38, an anaesthetic and intensive care registrar and mother of two outside Wythenshawe hospital. McCormack said:
I’ve been a junior doctor since 2003, and I’ll be becoming a consultant in the next couple of years. It’s taken me a long time because I’ve had children, so couldn’t always work full time. That’s part of why I find the new contract massively disappointing - it’s really going to hit people in my situation. We’re already outnumbered in my department, it’s very male dominated, and the new contract is really going to put smart women off. It’s terrifying, and a slap in the face for women who have worked so hard to get here.
Victoria McCormack, mother of two, thinks the new contract is "a slap in the face to women" #JuniorDoctorsStrike pic.twitter.com/QArmPxGAH0
12.07pm BST
Supporters of the doctors strike, including Vanessa Redgrave, have gathered at Whitehall, with colourful banners. A doctors choir joined the crowd as well as activists who chanted: “We don’t want your sexist racist cuts”.
Vanessa Redgrave addressed supporters of the doctors strike in Whitehall and said “the doctors are being treated like dirt” and said the government was “mad” for imposing the contract.
Vanessa Redgrave speaking and said doctors have been treated like dirt pic.twitter.com/02O7XdYB8c
Vanessa Redgrave was trying to make a speech, interrupted by chanting protesters #JuniorDoctorsStrike pic.twitter.com/baGSt44rY1
I started the petition for Care2. My younger sister is a junior doctor, and I care about the working conditionS but the concern I have is that I think this an obvious attempt to dismantle the NHS. It’s not okay the way the government is spinning and it’s an enforced contract which is medieval.
The petition has 120,000 and nobody wants to be treated by an exhausted doctor and this increase in working hours and the public knows this and why they are striking.
There's a save our NHS die in at Whitehall with choir #JuniorDoctorsStrike pic.twitter.com/ss5ASgyS5k
11.58am BST
Rebecca Pinnington, for the Guardian, is outside the Department of Health in Whitehall, where protesters will present a petition against the new contract with over 100,000 signatures.
Kiah Hamm has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, which affects the connective tissues in her joints and can be disabling for some. The NHS, she says, has saved the life of her and members of her family on multiple occasions, starting with a spell in intensive paediatric care as soon as she was born, when her chances of survival were very low.
Kiah Hamm says without NHS she would not be able to afford healthcare pic.twitter.com/hrg2UitfNs
For Kiah, what's the most troubling part of the new contract? #JuniorDoctorsStrike pic.twitter.com/WBfTLG0nrg
11.56am BST
Members of Plan C, Free Education Manchester, and Action for Trans Health have picketed the private Spire hospital in Manchester “in solidarity with the junior doctors and to broaden the conversation to include the wider sell off of the NHS”.
They have plans to expand pickets on the next set of strike days to Manchester, Birmingham, Brighton, Leicester, and London.
@Haroon_Siddique our members in Manchester picketed a private hospital (Spire) to help broaden the conversation... pic.twitter.com/LUz5rPYPvv
11.47am BST
A rally is being held on Whitehall, where a petition of 120,000 signatures supporting the junior doctors is being delivered to the department of health.
Am now reporting from Whitehall where a Care2 petition signed by 120,000 will be handed to department of health pic.twitter.com/iuCEIauqaC
Scenes outside the department of health: with national health singers rehearsing their song #JuniorDoctorsStrike pic.twitter.com/shPF1dhJ3E
11.46am BST
Jenny Higgs, 38, a junior doctor at Manchester Royal Infirmary has been on all four strikes and says her morale is low.
Speaking personally, I’m getting a bit depressed with the whole thing. It doesn’t feel like we’re changing anyone’s minds.
I hope something will change before then because nobody wants to go ahead with that. But I’ve just been reading the summary of the new contract and there are so many things in it that are completely appalling.
A lot [the public] are very supportive. But I think there are a lot of people who don’t understand what it’s all about and it’s quite hard when some of the reports in the papers aren’t very helpful.
11.42am BST
The former Labour minister, Ben Bradshaw, tweets that he had a run in with the controversial newspaper columnist Katie Hopkins (who is unsurprisingly unsympathetic to the junior doctors) at a picket line outside the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital.
Proud to have been shouted at by my well-known Conservative constituent @KTHopkins while talking to #juniordoctors outside @RDEhospital.
11.37am BST
Here is video of the Green Wing stars, including Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig, at the Northwick Park hospital picket line, in Harrow, north-west London.
A touch of celebrity at the Northwick Park #JuniorDoctorsStrike pic.twitter.com/QF1InzrIde
11.30am BST
Annie Gouk sends this update from Wythenshawe hospital, in south Manchester:
Mike Nesbitt, 28, has been working in A&E, but from today he’ll be starting as a junior GP.
The situation is pretty bleak to be honest. The night before last, every single bed in A&E and the whole hospital was full so patients coming in had no bed to go into. It’s been demoralising - there aren’t enough staff and the staff that are there are overworked. The shifts are difficult enough and when it becomes busier it becomes very difficult. That’s part of why I’m striking - currently the number of staff are struggling to maintain a five day service, so how can they expect the same number of staff to provide that service over seven days without extra funding? I think that unfortunately we’ve been left without a choice but to escalate the strikes, and hopefully the public will continue to support us.
I also spoke to Mike Nesbitt from A&E - "the situation's pretty bleak to be honest" #JuniorDoctorsStrike pic.twitter.com/aIkpLKKTmg
Meet Poppy, the unofficial mascot of the Wythenshawe hospital strikes #JuniorDoctorsStrike pic.twitter.com/SSIzMiIpH0
Not safe, not fair #JuniorDoctorsStrike pic.twitter.com/J8DPsBYGZq
11.21am BST
Cast from the medical comedy Green Wing have shown up at the picket line at Northwick Park hospital (where the series was filmed) in Harrow, north-west London, to show their support for the striking junior doctors.
Green Wing doctors support #juniordoctors pic.twitter.com/PLg2FyrDCO
11.11am BST
This image of the Kent and Canterbury hospital picket line was emailed to the Guardian.
11.06am BST
Fardad Soltani, 25, came straight out to join the picket line outside Manchester Royal Infirmary after finishing a night shift in A&E. It’s the first time he’s joined his junior doctor colleagues on strike because he works in emergency care, which is still being fully staffed. He said:
I’m glad to be here. Even though I haven’t been striking, you can still see what’s going on around you and it does have a knock on effect. You’re already working a really tiring shift, especially in A& E, and it does affect your morale and make you reconsider your career options.
I want to be a doctor and I will always want to be a doctor, but it’s made me want to move abroad.
It’s very, very, very competitive for international graduates, but I’d rather try hard to get there than have to deal with what’s going on here.
There was a poor turn out at the last picket. I think morale was really low. The contract had just been imposed, everybody had given up. And now, particularly because of the equalities report, people have kicked back against it.
Prior to that there was a summary of the recommendations for the contract, which I think a lot of junior doctors looked at and thought ‘this doesn’t actually look that awful’. But when the contract was finally released they realised it actually looks horrific.
“The thing that’s really angered me is that, regardless of whether you are a man or a woman, [the equalities report] singles out that actually it’s terrible for a single working parent. This is a government that has said they are committed to families. They say they want people to be in work, whether you’ve got kids or not.
Junior doctors Mary Gee and Fardad Soltani both agree that the DoH's equality report made strikers more determined. pic.twitter.com/bSThvefi52
10.47am BST
Annie Gouk, for the Guardian, has been speaking to Joe Cohen, 28, a junior anaesthetic doctor and BMA representative, outside Wythenshawe hospital in south Manchester. He said:
In the operating theatres, we are definitely having issues with available beds for patients, but I’m mainly shielded from the high stress they experience on the ward. The lack of beds is thanks to the government massively slashing social care funding and the shortage of nursing homes - it’s nothing to do with staffing or junior doctors working at weekends. The hospital have been totally upfront about the major incident announcement, and I don’t think it was deliberately timed for the strike. None of us want to be on strike, I’d much rather be in the hospital - I really enjoy my work, but we feel like we have no choice. This is really the last resort for us, but I think everyone agrees that we have to keep fighting.
I spoke to Joe Cohen, a junior anaesthetic doctor #JuniorDoctorsStrike pic.twitter.com/EoXhEOX8CS
10.45am BST
There are now around 30 doctors on the picket line, two hours into strike action.
Eoin Dore, an F2 doctor (in the second foundation year between medical school and specialist/GP training), said:
Today, it’s been nice to come down and see so much public support. There are lots of people worried and it’s already a mixed and private service.
I would ask people who don’t agree with the strike to let us debate on TV
Lot of stats are being handed about, being misused and misinterpreted, so give us a platform and let people make up their own mind
Eoin Dore, an F2 doctor, said: "I would ask people who don't agree with the strike should debate us on TV" pic.twitter.com/MjlBbDUuk9
George Lawson has been a doctor for one year and told me the #juniorcontract is sexist pic.twitter.com/0GqETTZFev
10.30am BST
Rebecca Pinnington, for the Guardian, writes:
Maureen Cooper, from Wandsworth Momentum, is at the St George’s picket line in solidarity with the junior doctors. Maureen was born before the creation of the NHS, and has seen the positive impacts it has had on her children and grandchildren.
It’s just not on that people should be conned into devoting their lives to a career and suddenly have it tipped up in the air. You need to have changes, you really do need to have changes in health provision, but you don’t impose them. You consult, you negotiate, and you use evidence to back up your plans, not ideology.
Wandsworth Momentum out in solidarity with #JuniorDoctorsStrike at St George's Hospital pic.twitter.com/ECHWDx7LY0
10.13am BST
Here are some more pictures of strikers across the country:
Great support from publIc, staff and patients here at wet QAH picket Portsmouth #JuniorDoctorsStrike @johannmalawana pic.twitter.com/JmUokJO576
Doncaster Royal Infirmary @TheBMA @yhdoctors #JuniorDoctorsStrike #juniordoctors #juniorcontract pic.twitter.com/Cf8BvzjMee
#juniordoctors at Worcester hospital. #GreenParty proud to stand with the doctors. pic.twitter.com/L6IuJ9aq61
All outside Ealing Hospital supporting our #juniordoctors #JuniorDoctorsStrike pic.twitter.com/q37ZuHKqMa
10.04am BST
Annie Gouk, is at Wythenshawe hospital, in south Manchester, for the Guardian. She writes:
A major internal incident was announced yesterday due to “huge pressures” on the A&E department. More than 20 junior doctors have gathered despite the grim weather , playing cheesy pop, sharing around chocolate and waving banners. Cars and buses have been beeping support as they pass.
9.56am BST
A petition of 120,000 signatures organised by the Care2 community website is to be delivered to the Department of Health, on Whitehall, in central London, at 11.30am.
There will be a rally from 11am with speeches. There will be a fire engine there as well as junior doctors, nurses, teachers and members of the fire brigade union. Vanessa Redgrave will also reportedly be there.
Join us to show your support in person.
The government will not budge despite all of the evidence which proves they are in the wrong.
9.37am BST
Stephen Mangan and other stars of the medical comedy Green Wing, are going to be showing their support for the junior doctors at Northwick Park hospital in north-west London today.
5 of us #GreenWing ‘docs’ are going to Northwick Park Hospital (where we filmed the series) tomorrow to support the junior docs.
Mac, Caroline, Boyce, Guy and Joanna Clore https://t.co/sLUVXtfjgh
2 surgeons, a house officer, the HR director and a sexy Swiss anaesthetist - Northwick Park Hospital at 11am #juniorcontract #GreenWing
9.28am BST
Junior doctor Cheryl Battersby told Rebecca Pinnington, who is at St George’s for the Guardian, that hospitals could benefit from more doctors on the weekend but it needs to be done “in the right way which is extra resources, extra funding, more doctors and it’s not making the doctors who are already there work more weekends”.
Cheryl Battersby is concerned the new contract is unsafe for her patients #JuniorDoctorsStrike pic.twitter.com/KscpDHO9Be
Cheryl continues - 7 day week is a good goal but pursued in the wrong way #JuniorDoctorsStrike pic.twitter.com/x7NoXn0Y9W
9.22am BST
Here are some more images from picket lines:
Lots of support for #juniordoctors at Calderdale today #JuniorDoctorsStrike @TheBMA @johannmalawana pic.twitter.com/5j3B8uZA4z
@whitden #juniordoctors #Bradford doctors' strike pic.twitter.com/92j9a1lw3a
Striking at St Mary's for a safe and fair contract! @TheBMA @drcjar #juniordoctors #notsafenotfair pic.twitter.com/nsz2VK8Bs3
Early starters at the Fulham Road hospitals - come join @RBandH @royalmarsden @aislinnmacklin #juniordoctors pic.twitter.com/awWhpy1vOU
9.15am BST
Imogen Clarke, a junior doctor of 11 years is handing out badges and stickers at St George’s hospital, in south London. She said she was here “because the government has imposed a contract the BMA said is unfair. It’s untried and untested but the government are pushing through soundbite policy without saying what it means.”
Something doesn’t add up I think the big problem is that we are thin on the ground already but do cover for goodwill. We already feel burdened with the gaps in the rota.”
If they push through this contract we will have good hard look at why we are in this career and then they’ll be left with even more gaps.
Imogen Clarke said the junior doctors contract is "unfair, untried and untested" and 7 day NHS is a soundbite policy pic.twitter.com/mD8Nv77y2s
I think the contract will drive people out and it will impact me greater as I will be on training for longer. We are particular lucky here as we have 24 hour cover.
But I know a lot of us have applied abroad - I’ve applied to a hospital in Wales.
Carrie Thomas, jnr doctor of 8 years, has come off her nightshift in A&E. She is on another nightshift this eve pic.twitter.com/6kwpkLec7O
9.09am BST
Rebecca Pinnington, also at St George’s for the Guardian writes:
St Georges has typically seen a walkout rate of over 90% during the strike, and doctors here today anticipate more of the same.
I do think better media PR from the BMA would be useful and would help us get our message out there. I think it does make a difference, people do notice when doctors strike for the first time in over forty years, but I think the problem is that the message behind the strike might have not got through so it doesn’t resonate. I think it’s embarrassing for the Department of Health, but I don’t think there’s enough pressure being put on.
The Equality Assessment that came out last week effectively says this is a sexist contract which disproportionately disadvantages women and other sole providers of care. [...] Then in the next paragraph it says that it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim, effectively saying that women are collateral damage and okay to be disadvantaged in order to push the contract through.
9.02am BST
Here is NHS England’s advice to patients during the industrial action. Although emergency care is excluded from the current strike, A&E departments are likely to be under increased pressure. Most of the advice is common sense and applies equally on a normal day.
NHS England industrial action statement: https://t.co/sdfkPvXcYQ pic.twitter.com/FcjXc1SkMJ
8.59am BST
Here are some updates from our northern reporter Frances Perraudin:
The picket line outside Manchester Royal Infirmary. "Get back inside and work," says Darth Hunt. pic.twitter.com/dqVvTehRpS
A picket line outside Manchester Royal Infirmary, where around 700 junior doctors work. About half are on strike. pic.twitter.com/5MJzJ2TRCV
8.56am BST
On a drizzly spring day, junior doctors in hi-vis jackets have set up a stall outside St George’s hospital, in Tooting, south-west London, and are handing out stickers to passers by.
Speaking to the Guardian, Niall Durrant, who has been a junior doctor for 20 months, said:
I’m here because I’m a junior doctor and work at the hospital and can’t imagine where else I’d be working.
It’s incredibly disappointing in my first few years to have the government turn on us.
Niall a jnr doctor said: I'm a young male, but what do I tell my little sister who wants to be a doctor? pic.twitter.com/vhJHQ9MiqK
8.42am BST
Here are some early pictures from today’s strike.
Some of the striking #JuniorDoctors at St Thomas' hospital today. @GMB @ITVLorraine pic.twitter.com/A5zTvgeVFD
.@MaudsleyNHS #juniordoctors start 48h #JuniorDoctorsStrike today. #juniorcontract disproportionately affects women. pic.twitter.com/hALSKbjiHw
March Supporting #juniordoctors today up Edward Street. Keep it up guys! pic.twitter.com/V2XYk8w8TR
8.27am BST
Actor and comedian David Schneider has posted an imaginary conversation about the Jeremy Hunt ordering a sandwich, which he says is a metaphor for the health secretary’s handling of the junior doctors’ contract.
A reminder of how Jeremy Hunt orders a sandwich. A metaphor in one act.#JuniorDoctorsStrike #juniordoctors pic.twitter.com/1kudwEjAoT
8.09am BST
The latest YouGov poll found that 45% of people blame the Department of Health for the contract dispute, compared with 12% pointing the finger at the BMA. A significant minority - 30% - said the blame was equally shared.
Support for industrial action is at 59% when junior doctors in emergency care do not take part (as in all strikes to date including the one beginning today), according to the poll. Just under a quarter (23%) oppose such action.
8.01am BST
The strike has begun.
The Evening Standard’s health editor says the junior doctors have the backing of the Patients Association.
Breaking: Patients' Association backs #juniordoctors in latest 48-hour strike action pic.twitter.com/iMxs8ft6Iq
7.51am BST
At 8am, junior doctors will launch their fourth strike in four months.
NHS England says 5,165 operations have been cancelled as a result of the latest walkout. There are usually 31,000 operations in the NHS on any given day, so the total cancelled represents about 8.3% of the total that would usually be carried out over the 48-hour period (62,000).
We deeply regret any disruption this action will cause to patients, but it is because we believe this contract would be bad for the delivery of patient care in the long term that we are taking this action.
By imposing a contract that junior doctors have no confidence in and refusing to re-enter talks with the BMA, the government has left us with no choice.
With almost 25,000 operations cancelled so far, it is patients who are suffering.
If the BMA had agreed to negotiate on Saturday pay, as they promised to do through Acas in November, we’d have a negotiated agreement by now.
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