Fewer doctors thought to have joined picket lines on first day than last year

The number of resident doctors thought to have joined picket lines yesterday for the first day of a five-day strike was thought to be thousands down on last year's industrial action.

- Rachel Hall Peter Walker

Although NHS England will only publish data on turnout and cancellations next week, hospital leaders are understood to have observed fewer resident doctors on strike and less disruption to services than during the last round of industrial action, which ran from March 2023 until July last year.

While ministers and officials will not receive any statistics until after the five-day stoppage ends on Wednesday, there is hope within government that the impact might be mitigated, in part by a lower strike turnout.

The British Medical Association (BMA), which represents the profession previously known as junior doctors, will not comment on how many members have joined the stoppage until it is over.

The strike will continue until 7am on Wednesday. The public have been urged to keep coming forward for NHS care during this period, and NHS England has urged hospital chief executives to keep routine operations and appointments and only reschedule if there is a risk to patient safety.

The NHS chief executive, Sir Jim Mackey, told broadcasters yesterday that the NHS was taking a new approach after learning from previous strikes that "harm to patients and disruption to patients was much broader than the original definitions".