LAST week’s second 24-hour strike in less than a month by junior doctors caused “limited disruption” to patients and services at the two major hospitals serving Farnham.

No operations or procedures and just 17 outpatient clinics were cancelled at Frimley Park while the Royal Surrey in Guildford postponed 153 of 1,593 outpatients appointments and 14 operations.

But the aftermath could cause major embarrassment for Health Secretary and South West Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt, if a group of MPs allow a debate in the Commons triggered by an online parliamentary petition calling for a vote of no confidence.

A growing backlash started as the strike ended and Mr Hunt confirmed the government will impose a new contract on junior doctors starting in August.

Addressing ministers in the House of Commons on Thursday, Mr Hunt said he had no choice but to act on his longstanding threat after the British Medical Association (BMA) rejected a “best and final” offer.

The new contract, which Mr Hunt says is vital to delivering the government’s key manifesto pledge to introduce a ‘seven-day’ NHS by 2020, will be imposed on August 1 - increasing the likelihood of further confrontation and industrial action.

Criticising the BMA for a lack of flexibility in talks, Mr Hunt told the Commons: “While I understand that this process has generated considerable dismay among junior doctors I believe that the new contract we are introducing is one that, in time, can command the confidence of both the workforce and their employers.”

An online protest petition was posted on the parliamentary website the same day, calling for a vote of “no confidence in Jeremy Hunt”. It gathered more than 200,000 signatures over the weekend, twice the number required to trigger a parliamentary debate.

Members of the petitions committee that adjudicates on which pleas should be allowed to be debated in Parliament will meet on February 23, to make a decision. A similar call for a vote of no confidence made last September gathered 220,000 signatures and triggered an afternoon debate on “the e-petition relating to contracts and conditions in the NHS”.

Elsewhere, the immediate fallout from Mr Hunt’s Thursday announcement, resulted in Fareham Conservatives abruptly cancelling a drinks and canapés branch event he was scheduled to attend last Friday, after reports junior doctors were buying tickets so that they could ask him questions about their new contract.