English junior doctors strike:

Junior doctors in England staged their first ever all-out strike Tuesday in a bitter, deadlocked row with Prime Minister David Cameron’s government over pay and conditions.

The strike forced 13,000 operations and 113,000 appointments to be postponed by the National Health Service, which employs more than 50,000 junior doctors.

While there have been several recent walk-outs, this one affected hospital emergency care such as accident and emergency (A&E) and maternity units for the first time, although senior doctors and nurses will still be on duty.

Junior doctors are graduates with years of experience who have not yet completed their professional qualifications.

“Anything unprecedented like this places a significant pressure on the NHS,” Anne Rainsberry, national incident director for NHS England, told BBC radio.

The British Medical Association (BMA), the doctors’ trade union, has not ruled out a permanent strike or mass resignations as a way of trying to force the government’s hand over the new staff contract on offer.

A key sticking point has been on how much financial compensation junior doctors should get for working on Saturdays.

But Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the new contract was a “very fair deal” that rewarded junior doctors better than paramedics, police officers and fire officers for working unsociable weekend hours. (AFP)