DOCTORS at the two major hospitals serving Farnham have criticised MP Jeremy Hunt’s “posturing” for causing major disruption to hospital services this week, after a 24-hour strike by junior doctors was called off at the 11th hour.

The walk-out scheduled for Tuesday was suspended on Monday night after a last-minute breakthrough in talks between the British Medical Association (BMA) and Mr Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health and MP for South West Surrey.

However, it came too late for many hospitals including Frimley Park and the Royal Surrey in Surrey, which were given little time to reschedule operations and clinics cancelled in anticipation of the walk-out.

The dispute centres around the Health Secretary’s calls for a “seven-day NHS” to reduce weekend mortality rates and improve patient safety - a move that would require a new junior doctors’ contract which the BMA has warned would lead to doctors working “dangerously” long hours and for less money.

As such, the BMA refused to negotiate with Mr Hunt until he lifted a threat to impose the controversial contract on doctors - a demand he agreed to on Monday night, prompting the suspension of three days of industrial action on December 1, 8 and 16.

Speaking to The Herald, junior doctors at Frimley Park and the Royal Surrey expressed relief that the strike - the first in 40 years - had been cancelled, but slammed the Health Secretary for the timing of his decision.

Sammy Batt-Rawden, an A&E doctor at Frimley Park, said: “The industrial action was called off at the 11th hour and we’re all very relieved it didn’t go ahead. However, many patients had their operations and clinics cancelled in anticipation of the strike and there was no time to rebook these.

“It’s a massive shame that Jeremy Hunt didn’t make his offer [to lift the threat of contract imposition] until the last minute. There’s been a lot of posturing and it’s had a detrimental effect on junior doctors as well as patients.

“Jeremy Hunt’s demeanour towards us is so demoralising. We want a Health Secretary who will work with us and support us, but at the moment we feel he is fighting against us.

“It’s been really stressful for us all. I’m an A&E doctor and we work long and unsociable hours. With the shortage of staff it’s been really difficult over the last few years to work in A&E.

“Patients are supportive. They see our badges and come up to us in the street to offer their support and sometimes even give us cards and boxes of chocolates. We are wholeheartedly sorry to anyone whose operations and clinics have been cancelled.”

Dr Elizabeth Potter, an anaesthetic and intensive care registrar at the Royal Surrey, added: “We believe the contract Jeremy Hunt plans to impose will be unsafe for patients and be the breaking point of the NHS.

“We currently operate a good seven-day emergency service and an elective five-day service. He plans to stretch the elective five-day service to cover seven-days. This is something that is not done anywhere else in the world.

“The Royal College of Physicians has estimated that 40,000 extra junior doctors would be required for a truly ‘seven-day NHS’. However, Mr Hunt plans to do this with no extra staff and no extra funding.

“The one thing he does plan to change is the current robust safeguards on our hours, which will be removed. We believe this would leave the entire service extremely stretched to breaking point where adequate patient safety could not be maintained.”

Dr Louise Irvine, a Lewisham GP who stood unsuccessfully for election against Mr Hunt in South West Surrey earlier this year, said: “It’s a huge achievement for the junior doctors to get the Government back to the negotiating table. It’s a real shame it took the threat of strike action to achieve that.

“Before that the Government was refusing to listen to them, especially their concerns that the proposed new contract would lead to pay cuts, more antisocial hours and less safe working practices.

“The junior doctors have repeatedly made it clear they did not want to strike. What they wanted were genuine negotiations. Let’s hope they now have that and the Government negotiates in good faith.”

After agreeing to negotiate, Mr Hunt and the BMA will now spend the next month discussing the detail of an outline agreement, the outcome of which must be presented to BMA members no later than January 13 to avoid further strike action.

Mr Hunt - who this week became the seventh longest serving Health Secretary of all time overtaking his predecessor in South West Surrey, Virginia Bottomley - hailed the decision to call off the strike as a “victory for common sense”.

He said: “This week the doctors’ union - the BMA - cancelled their strike action and agreed to enter negotiations over our plans to reform junior doctors’ contracts. This was a victory for common sense and great news for patients, who could have faced disruption at best and serious harm at worst if the strikes had gone ahead.

“Our preference has always been a negotiated solution, but unfortunately the BMA had refused to enter negotiations since October 2014. However last week I agreed to meet them under the auspices of the ACAS conciliation service.

“After working through the weekend, discussions led to an agreement with the BMA on Monday evening. This agreement allows a limited period during which negotiations can take place, and during which the BMA agrees to suspend strike action and the government agrees not to proceed with implementing a new contract.

“It is highly regrettable that this strike was originally called even before the BMA had seen the government’s offer, and I firmly believe the impact on patients could have been avoided if the BMA had chosen to negotiate from the outset.

“Unfortunately, around 3,000 operations had already been cancelled, but thankfully much of the other disruption can now be avoided. Providing safe services for patients and a safe working environment for doctors will be my priority during the talks, as we work towards our long term ambition to make NHS care the safest and highest quality in the world.”