Hundreds of junior doctors join protests in Southampton and Winchester

More than 500 people gathered at the Bargate in the city centre waiving placards and banners.

• Junior Doctors on strike - in pictures >>

The rally was the climax of demonstrations and pickets taking place across the region as hundreds of junior doctors walk out over pay and conditions.

There are representatives from as far afield as Portsmouth, Bournemouth and Salisbury.

Musician Josh Savage performed while members of the unions were also demonstrating.

Junior doctor Sohaib Rufai, President of the Southampton General Hospital Doctors', is one of those who organised the rally.

He said he was delighted at the turnout and support from the public and said: "We had 300 people initially register interest but we have had many more turned up from all over the Wessex region.

"Together we will fight for safer contracts."

Meanwhile Southampton General Hospital postponed 13 operations and 130 outpatient clinics.

A hospital spokesman said they are making arrangements with patients rearrange the procedures as soon as possible and added: “Aside from these cases, the trust commenced a full elective surgery programme this morning and has functioned well due to robust contingency plans developed prior to the strike.”

He added: “In the same way as plans were developed for the current period of strike action, human resources and senior clinical staff across University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust will work alongside junior doctor representatives and the BMA to develop plans to minimise disruption to patients ahead of further action from 26 to 28 January.”

Bosses at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital reveal that they pressed ahead with all their planned operations and the majority of clinics, despite today’s industrial action.

None of their operations required suspension and that just three out of 35 clinics were postponed.

This compared to Basingstoke and North Hants Hospital scrapping two operations and seven out of 64 planned clinics.

But Andover War Memorial Hospital went ahead with all its operations and just two of 16 scheduled clinics were cancelled.

Donna Green, chief nurse at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Thanks to a tremendous effort from our staff, we were able to carry out most operations and outpatient clinics as planned. We apologise for any inconvenience caused to the small number of patients whose appointments did need to be postponed. These will be rescheduled as soon as possible.

“I would like to say a big thank you to all of our staff for their efforts in making sure that as many patients as possible were unaffected by the industrial action. We put in place a range of measures to look after patients as safely as possible, with senior medical staff and senior nursing staff utilised on the wards and in our emergency departments.

“We are already working on a plan to minimise disruption during the 48-hour strike scheduled to take place later this month and are hoping to keep the number of postponed appointments as low as possible once again.”

NHS England yesterday estimated there will be around 4,000 cancellations in total nationally - of which 3,400 are today.