Junior Doctors walk out in Surrey and East Hampshire as part of longest ever strike
The strike is set to go on for six days
Junior doctors are walking out in Surrey and East Hampshire today as part of the largest NHS strike in history.
The strike amounts to 144 consecutive hours of industrial action, taking place across the country from 7am today until 7am on January 9th.
It's taking place because of an ongoing dispute between the British Medical Association (BMA) union and the government.
The BMA wants junior doctors to get a 35% pay rise, which it says would restore their real earnings to 2008 levels, but the Government says this is unaffordable.
Dr Bill Jewsbury - Medical Director at the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust - tells us:
"This is the longest period of strike action we have had so far, so clearly we are concerned that we can maintain our services and continue to provide medical care for our population.
"We've been planning this ever since the strikes were announced and we have a lot of experience now working through industrial action... we are comfortable we have sufficient levels of cover to look after the patients we need to.
"We will not be running as many elective operations and outpatient clinics as we normally would as we've had to redeploy some of our senior staff including consultants to ensure we are providing safe levels of cover for our in-patients and urgent emergency care patients."
Residents are urged to support their local hospital
Doctor Jewsbury has also asked residents to support their local hospital where they can.
He said: "Clearly we don't have the same levels of service that we would on a normal working day so what we are asking our community to do is to use our service sensibly and carefully.
"If you don't think you have a medical emergency, then there are other ways of getting help.
"You can either use the local pharmacist for advice guidance and medications or you can use the minor treatment or minor injuries units.
"If families have patients that are medically fit for discharge, if they could be prepared to ensure they get their family member home as soon as possible.
"It's the best place for their family member and it also frees up the bed for the next patient coming through the system who may be waiting in our emergency department.
"If the members of our community can do this, it would be very much appreciated."