Junior doctors have began a four-day strike as part of their ongoing dispute with the Government over pay.
The walkout by members of the British Medical Association (BMA) is expected to cause huge disruption to the NHS this week, with an estimated 250,000 appointments, including operations, set to be cancelled.
They are demanding a pay deal which addresses a 26% fall in the real-terms value of their pay since 2008. NHS managers have warned that patient care is "on a knife edge" because of the strike.
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Junior doctors gathered at picket lines outside hospitals across the country, including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QE) in Gateshead, from 7am on Tuesday morning.
Junior doctor Niamh Farren, who lives on the Quayside in Newcastle, was striking outside the hospital on Queen Elizabeth Lane on Tuesday morning. She was holding up a placard which said: "CLAPS DON'T PAY THE BILLS".
The 25-year-old told Chronicle Live: "We have had a really good turn out at the QE this morning. Everyone is here in support of the strikes and for the same reason - we're after full pay restoration. That's what we feel we deserve.
"We just feel undervalued and frustrated by the fact that we didn't get the pay we feel we deserve."
Niamh, who has been a junior doctor for three years, works at the QE and also teaches doctors who are training at the hospital while on placement.
She said: "It's important for me, in particular, as I'm also working with the medical students at the moment, doing a teaching job. It's not only important for me but it's important for the junior doctors I'm teaching at the moment."
Niamh, who graduated from Newcastle University in 2020, said she will strike and take part in a rally in Newcastle on Friday.
She added: "We have so much support from members of the public, they have been bringing us drinks and chocolates.
"There's lots of people stopping and chatting to us and thanking us for everything that we do. It would be nice to have that from the Government as well.
"I think the Government should be trying to meet us with a reasonable offer and be open to discussions with us about what we deserve and what the public feel we deserve as well."
Foundation doctor Ian Sayers joined Niamh on the picket line in Gateshead. He was holding up a placard which said "PAY RESTORATION FOR DOCTORS".
Ian said: "Pay has been solely reduced from sort of 2008. As a new doctor I haven't experienced that but I did used to work in the NHS as a pharmacist, and I can see the morale from working with doctors then to what it is now, it has changed quite a lot.
"It is completely different to ten years ago - everyone is just a bit broken. We're losing doctors left right and centre. People are burning out, people are going abroad, how do you hold onto your staff when you're training them if they're just leaving straight away from there?
"I've gone less than full-time this year, for childcare - but again it was a really hard decision to make with my partner because we did have to kind of look at our finances and go from there.
"Everyone's suffering the cost of living crisis but it is really, really difficult at the moment."
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