JEREMY HUNT got a home visit yesterday from more than a hundred junior doctors, who took their strike over his “unsafe” new contract right to the Department of Health.

More than 50,000 members of the British Medical Association (BMA) across England downed stethoscopes for the fourth time in a six-month dispute with the Tory Health Secretary.

Medics reluctantly walked out of hospital wards for 48 hours from 8am, braving pouring rain to form picket lines and talk to patients and the public about the dangers of Mr Hunt’s plan.

Doctors from London hospitals marched down Whitehall to the doors of Mr Hunt’s department chanting: “Not safe, not fair, Jeremy Hunt doesn’t care.”

And from a fire engine provided by the Fire Brigades Union doctors gave passionate speeches about the consequences of the contract.

“I think this is really, really frightening for government — that we have managed to mobilise 54,000 doctors,” said Dr Lauren Gavaghan.

“This is a huge, huge thing going on. We are in a historic moment here as doctors.

“I hope nobody underestimates what this is going to lead to in the future — the government are privatising the NHS by stealth. That is very clear.”

Implementing a seven-day non-emergency service without paying for more doctors will over stretch staff and put patients’ safety at risk, the doctors warned.

The government’s own equality assessment also revealed it would discriminate against women — but Mr Hunt disregarded that.

A Department of Health spokesman branded the strike “irresponsible and disproportionate,” saying that 25,000 operations had been cancelled.

But Matteo de Martio, a junior doctor who organised the protest, said: “Junior doctors already spend their lives filling rota gaps.

“We spend our lives choosing between one emergency and another because there are not of us to cover the days already.

“It is through the lies that you tell and the overstretching of our workforce that the public will come to harm and that is why we’re here today and what we cannot allow.”

What makes doctors strike four times?

Katherine Greaves
Doctor
After training for six years, this contract was a bombshell. This hasn’t stopped me wanting to be a doctor. I love my job but you need to be able to practice in a safe way. Jeremy Hunt should listen to the people who work day in, day out on the front line.

Kiah Hann
Patient
Doctors have been saving my life since I was a baby because I went into a coma just after I was born. I’ve been in hospital over 60 times since then and I’m 23 years old. Without junior doctors the NHS is nothing and we need to support them. I’ve been trying to support the strike because I think it’s really important that the government sees that it’s not just the doctors who feel strongly about this, it’s patients too.

Helen Hughes
Doctor
A contract is by definition an agreement between two people. So Jeremy Hunt’s attitude makes a mockery of the term. It’s unsafe in the short term for patients and overall the lack of commitment to investing in the future of the NHS just demonstrates that Hunt doesn’t really want a future for the NHS.

Chris Deutsche
Doctor
The government is proceeding to impose the contract without any support across the NHS. We feel this will not only be damaging to safe service in the short term but also represents a step towards the privatisation of the NHS in the long term. The public are very clearly behind us from the support we’ve been getting today. Now it’s up to us and up to the BMA to ensure that we keep the momentum up and the protest remains visible.

Hannah Marshall
Doctor
We’ve been on the picket line since 8am. It’s been quite wet but it’s worth it. It’s good for solidarity and for morale because this is quite difficult as you can imagine for people, we don’t want to be striking so we need to be reminded of what we’re doing.