The first ever all-out strike by doctors in the history of the UK's National Health Service (NHS) began in England on Tuesday, as junior doctors continue to protest against new contracts they say are unsafe and are being forced upon them.
Thousands of junior doctors a term used for medical practitioners who are working while still going through their years of training walked out of both routine and emergency care. It is the latest in a series of strikes over working hours and pay but is the first that has affected intensive care and maternity and accident and emergency wards.
The NHS said "military level" contingency planning had been carried out to protect patient safety during the 48-hour strike, including the cancellation of nearly 13,000 operations and more than 100,000 appointments, the redeployment of nurses and more senior doctors into emergency care, and the cancellation of holiday and study leave.
There are more than 55,000 junior doctors in England, around a third of all medical staff. Doctors who belong to the trade union British Medical Association (BMA) have been in a long-running dispute with the government over planned changes to their contracts, which would mean an extension of their standard working hours to include evenings and Saturdays.
