ALMOST 1,000 hospital appointments and operations have been cancelled across Sussex as hundreds of junior doctors held their first strike for 40 years.

The 24-hour walkout started at 8am today after medics took to the picket lines and staged public awareness events to highlight why they had taken industrial action.

Pickets were held at hospitals around the county, including the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, Worthing Hospital and Eastbourne District General Hospital.

Royal Sussex junior doctor and British Medical Association rep Sara Kingdon said the strike was a last resort.

She said: “It was a difficult decision to make and nobody wanted to do this but we had to take a stand.

“We have had a tremendous amount of support today from other colleagues, patients and members of the public.”

More than 400 junior doctors at the county’s hospitals did not turn up for work.

At some hospitals more than a third of all doctors officially rostered to be on duty have not come in.

Senior doctors and consultants were drafted in to provide cover throughout the day in a bid to keep disruption to a minimum but in some areas, up to a quarter of procedures had to be rescheduled.

All patients affected by the strike have been offered alternative appointments.

The dispute stems from Government plans to impose a new seven day contract on doctors, ranging from junior to consultant level, next year.

It is part of moves to create a “seven-day” NHS service across the country.

Doctors say the NHS already provides a week long service and changing working conditions will only encourage young doctors to leave the NHS or work abroad.

They also say the 11 per cent pay rise offered by health secretary Jeremy Hunt does not take into account the subsequent reduction in out-of-hours work, which currently makes up a large amount of the salary for A&E doctors in particular.

Medics warn the effective pay cut will put doctors off working in A&E and departments and patients will suffer.

Strikers were backed at the picket line in Brighton by members of the local Green and Labour parties, university students and Sussex Defend the NHS.

Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas was supporting strikers at St Thomas' Hospital in London.

Sussex Defend the NHS member Janet Sang said: “We need to do everything possible to protect the NHS and its staff and we fully support what the junior doctors are doing today.

“The government is trying to impose an unfair contract that will not just impact on junior doctors but all NHS workers in the future.”

Eleni Gounari, a registrar in neonatology, said: “I trained in Greece. Even with all this going on I would still want to work in the UK.

“The NHS is a good system and that’s why I feel so strongly about protecting it because you can see it’s a nice system and how it works.

“I think people don’t realise how good they have it and it annoys me that they’re willing to throw it away.”

Today’s strike will be followed by a 48-hour stoppage and the provision of emergency care only from 8am on January 26.

On February 10, there will be a full withdrawal of labour from 8am to 5pm.