Junior doctors take industrial action today after failed talks with the government

The action comes after talks between the government and the British Medical Association (BMA) about changes to junior doctors' contracts broke down last week.

The BMA are looking for progress to be made to alleviate junior doctors' concerns about the need for robust contractual safeguards on safe working, and proper recognition for those working unsocial hours. They say that unless progress is made on these key areas, the 24-hour action today during which junior doctors are providing emergency care only, will be followed by further action in January and February.

The picket took place from 8am to 11am, with a regional static event taking place this afternoon in Southampton. 74 outpatient appointments and 5 elective procedures that were scheduled to take place at Salisbury District Hospital today have been cancelled as a result of the strikes.

Peter Hill, Chief Executive at Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust said: “This may be the first of several days of action and while we expect some reduction to our normal services, we are advising patients that unless they are directly contacted by the hospital, they should attend their outpatient appointment as usual. We will also notify patients if we have to cancel their operation or procedure.

"Where any disruption to normal services is likely to occur we apologise to patients for any inconvenience this may cause."

The picket took place at the hospital's main entrance

Jennie Hanks, who has worked as a junior doctor in A&E for 16 months, took part in today's picket. Said: "No-one wants to strike. It's not something we want to do or enjoy doing, but it feels like the only option left and we hope that if we do it properly, the message will get through.

This was never an issues about wanting increased pay. This is an issue about the safeguards for working unsafe hours being removed".

Michael Beckett, a Paediatric Registrar, and his wife Bryony are both junior doctors. He said: "We'll remain junior doctors for the next five years, having spent seven years at university and we're in our fifth year of being doctors now.

"If they introduce this new contract, making Saturday a normal working day, and up to 10pm normal working time, we can't get childcare. There is no childcare available in the whole of Salisbury in those hours for our ten month old child. It means my wife will likely have to quit working, with the government having paid hundreds of thousands of pounds to put her through medical school, for a job that she loves and couldn't imagine quitting or doing anything else, because she gets to make a real difference to people's lives. This is the position that this new contract is putting people in.

"These are the real stories.We all want to be in work today, we all want to be making a difference to the patients, like we do on a daily basis, but if this contract is to come in it's going to be really damaging to those who want to do the job the most and really want to make the biggest difference."

"One of us will have to quit. If we can't get childcare what are we supposed to do? It's impossible for us to work."

The junior doctors wave at a car which is beeping to show support

A doctor who wished to remain un-named said: "What we really hope for from this is just to re-open negotiations, because it's come to a standstill. The reason we've come out on strike today is because we're being put over a barrel.

"There's no room for negotiation. At the very least we should be able to negotiate our contract, not have it forced upon us.

"None of us wanted a strike, I feel really upset about it. I went back to university as a graduate to do this and I've trained for years to work as a doctor, it's what I love doing.

"Working as a doctor is very tough, we work under tough conditions and we don't ask for much pay for it, but we can't work even more hours for even less.

"It's an enormous sadness today, that we've reached this point. I didn't train for ten years to strike."