Junior doctors braved the sleet and snow to picket outside Royal Blackburn Hospital.

Thousands of junior doctors across the country have entered a second day of walkouts as health leaders warned that the NHS is facing “high pressure” as a result of the strikes.

A group of doctors were outside one of the entrances to the hospital site today (Tuesday 14 March) with large signs. Drivers beeped and gestured to show their support throughout the morning.

Industrial action will continue until 7am on Thursday (16 March) and the East Lancashire Hospital Trust (ELHT) said there would be ‘disruption to services.’

NHS leaders said that emergency care and other departments were under significant pressure, even with consultants and other staff taking on the work of junior doctors on picket lines.

The British Medical Association (BMA) says junior doctors’ pay has fallen in real terms by 26% since 2008/09 and reversing this would require a 35.3% pay rise.

On Friday, Health Secretary Steve Barclay invited the BMA to talks – but the union rejected the idea, saying there were “unacceptable” pre-conditions.

The pre-conditions are understood to have included looking at a non-consolidated lump sum payment for last year, whereas the BMA is seeking what it calls “full pay restoration”. The union has implored the Government to drop the preconditions.

Hospital bosses have said that they were planning services “hour by hour” during strike action and are diverting more senior doctors, who are not on strike, to the services in “greatest clinical need”.

A spokesperson for ELHT said: “Some planned appointments and procedures may be cancelled – and this may be at late notice as the trust explores every possible avenue for activity to go ahead.

"If we need to change your appointment, we will contact you directly. If you have not been contacted, please attend any appointments as planned. 

“The minor injuries unit at Accrington Victoria Hospital will be closed until 8am on Thursday, 16 March. 

“Urgent care remains available at the Urgent Treatment Centres at Burnley and Blackburn, Minor Injuries Unit at Rossendale or NHS 111 can advise you.

“Emergency care and other critical services such as maternity departments will be open. Please consider the best pathway for your needs.”

Dr Rob Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairs of the BMA’s junior doctor committee, said in a statement: “We remain open to entering talks with the Government anytime and anywhere to bring this dispute to a swift resolution and restore the pay that junior doctors have lost.

“If the Health Secretary is truly committed to this, then he needs to drop these unreasonable pre-conditions and begin proper negotiations with us.

“The pre-conditions go against the very thing junior doctors are in dispute over. It begs the question; does he even understand why doctors are so angry?

“Patients and doctors want a quick end to this dispute, but it seems the Government want to prolong it. So, we are asking him to drop the barriers he has put in place and start talking – doctors and patients deserve nothing less.”

Junior doctors make up around 45% of the NHS’s medical workforce, and consultants and other medics have been drafted in to provide strike cover in areas such as A&E.