VIDEO: Striking doctors have blasted the Government's "dirty tactics" to discredit them for taking industrial action + your vote

Thousands of junior doctors across the country set up picket lines at hospitals despite last-ditch efforts by Prime Minister David Cameron to get them to abandon their "damaging" course of action.

But yesterday junior doctor Rachel Clarke accused the government of spinning the truth and said the row was about patient safety, not pay.

Speaking from the picket lines she added: "Striking for the first time has given me so much insight into the dirty tricks a government will play against any group who threatens them.

"I never thought I would be treated as the enemy by the government just for doing my job as a doctor.

"We have been smeared against, we have been accused of not protecting our patients."

Around 100 picket lines were set up yesterday, including one at the John Radcliffe Hospital, for the 24-hour walkout due to end at 8am today.

The row centres around Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt threatening to impose new contracts that he said would create more seven-day services. Ministers offered doctors an 11 per cent rise in basic pay to try to introduce a 24/7 service but medics claim resources will be stretched to breaking point by having the same staff work longer hours.

Wading into the row on the eve of the first all-out doctors strike in the history of the NHS, Mr Cameron said the industrial action will cause "real difficulties for patients and potentially worse".

He added: "This strike is not necessary, it will be damaging."

But Dr Clarke said Mr Cameron's intervention at the 11th hour was "insulting" and doctors just wanted to go to work and look after their patients.

She added: "David Cameron has maintained a stony silence since this dispute started and I am not sure the 11th hour intervention does anything other than insult us. I am standing here today on a picket line and it goes against everything I believe in as a doctor.

"But I have to be here because I have to stand up for all my patients in the future. We will not let our patients be compromised."

Dozens of doctors, some wearing scrubs and carrying stethoscopes, joined supporters brandishing banners and placards to set up a picket line at the main entrance to the hospital.

Later the doctors and their supporters moved to Broad Street for a mass demonstration outside the Sheldonian Theatre.

More than 100 people holding placards and banners reading 'not safe, not fair', 'save our NHS' and 'support junior doctors' chanted together in the city centre while drivers tooted their horns and gave the crowd the thumbs-up as they drove past.

Dr Zoe Richmond, who qualified as a doctor last year and spent four months at the John Radcliffe Hospital's surgical emergency unit, said the proposed contract was not safe for staff or patients and would stretch services too far.
She added: "There is a danger to the future of the way we are able to care for our patients and a danger to the future of the NHS.

"More and more we are seeing cuts and a lack of resources that are being stretched and the danger is patients will suffer."

Despite staff at Sandwell General Hospital in West Bromwich being asked to return to work when the hospital declared a so-called 'level 4 emergency', the Oxford University Hospital's Foundation Trust confirmed it had not recalled any of its doctors.

More than 37,000 junior doctors across the country – including 2,000 in the Thames Valley – voted in favour of industrial action last year, although a planned strike in December was halted the day before when talks re-opened.
But the negotiations between the Department of Health and the British Medical Association (BMA) aimed at resolving the dispute over a new contract failed last week.

Unless a resolution is reached it will be followed by 48 hours of emergency care only beginning on January 26.

A third day of action is scheduled for February 10 when there will be a full withdrawal of junior doctors’ labour between 8am and 5pm.

We answer seven key questions about the strike.

1- Why are junior doctors going on strike?

Junior doctors have been in dispute with the Government since Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced plans for a new contract, which he  said would create more seven-day services.

Ministers offered doctors an 11 per cent rise in basic pay to try and introduce a 24/7 service but medics claim resources will be stretched to breaking point by having the same staff work longer hours.

Junior doctors say the dispute is about patient safety, not pay.

2- What will happen if I am rushed to hospital with an emergency condition?

The strike will affect people with routine appointments, which will need to be rearranged, but hospital bosses have stressed that emergency care will not be affected.

Emergency care will also be provided if junior doctors go on strike a second time this month but emergency care would be affected if there is a third strike in February.

3- When will the next strikes happen?

Unless a deal is struck between the Government and the British Medical Association (BMA)- the doctors' union- junior doctors will go on strike again from 9am on Tuesday, January 26 for 24 hours.

A third strike could then take place from 8am until 5pm on Wednesday, February 10, which would be a full walk-out affecting emergency care.

4- What does the Government say?

Ministers, including David Cameron, have said they are disappointed by the decision to take strike action.

Mr Hunt said: "Our absolute priority is making sure the NHS delivers high-quality care, seven days a week.

“We know that is what doctors want too, so it is extremely disappointing that the BMA has chosen to take industrial action which helps no one.”

5- Who are junior doctors?

Despite the name junior doctors often have a lot of experience and are not just fresh out of medical school.

The term refers to doctors who are below consultant level and they may have been in the job for many years.

They have a starting salary of £22,636 and are paid extra for working anti-social hours a the weekend.

Under Government proposals their new starting salary would be £35,500 and would rise to £55,000 in the final year's training.

But doctors say they could actually see their pay fall due to changes in unsociable pay.

6- Have they gone on strike before?

The last major strike over pay and conditions by junior doctors was in 1975.

Then they walked out over similar reasons such as dissatisfaction over pay and many medics feeling they were undervalued and overworked.

If February's strike affecting emergency care goes ahead it would be the first all-out strike by doctors in the history of the NHS.

7- What does the BMA say about all of this?

BMA chairman Dr Mark Porter has defended strike action and said the Government is "not taking junior doctors' concerns seriously".

He said the BMA regrets the disruption that industrial action would cause but that junior doctors had been left with "no option"