There was a rallying cry for change in the NHS as junior doctors hit picket lines across Greater Manchester for the second consecutive morning. Woolly hats and hot drinks were needed as members of the British Medical Association (BMA) took to picket lines on a bitter Wednesday morning (April 12) for day two of a four-day strike.
But spirits were high among colleagues who say their battle is about more than just pay. With thousands of doctor vacancies across the NHS, junior doctors insist the quality of care for patients is at stake.
"We don't have as many doctors as we should have," Dr Bradley Allmond, a junior doctor at North Manchester General Hospital, told the Manchester Evening News. "We're trying to get more staff in hospitals, more doctors, to be able to deliver the safe patient care that we all want to do - that's what we got into medicine for.
