"ROBUST plans" ensured that the latest national junior doctors’ strike had a minimal impact on North-East patients, according to the region’s NHS Trusts.

Junior doctors attended more than 160 picket lines across the country in response to the Government’s proposal to impose a new contract roundly rejected by the profession as being unfair.

Staff at NHS Trusts across the region including Darlington and Durham, Newcastle, South Tees, North Tees and Hartlepool joined the strike organised by the British Medical Association in a bid to get a fairer weekend contract for junior doctors.

A spokesperson for County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust said there were robust plans in place to manage the disruption, leading to the cancellation of just 110 outpatient appointments, along with five elective day cases and two elective inpatients.

He added: “We were well prepared thanks to the efforts and support received from clinical and corporate colleagues.

“Unfortunately, it was necessary to make changes to some non-emergency work such as routine elective surgery and we contacted these patients to apologise for any inconvenience and to make alternative appointments.”

John Moore, a junior doctor at Newcastle RVI and chairman of the Northern Junior Doctors Committee, joined the Newcastle picket before his 9am shift and said that many doctors felt “pushed into a corner” by the government.

He said: “It is a last resort for doctors to take industrial action because it is not something we would ever take lightly.

“It is not something we are happy to do but we don’t feel like we have any other option.

“The hope is that the Secretary of State (for Health) will stop playing politics with this and resume negotiations in good faith.”

Dr Moore said that the public response to the strike had been “overwhelming”, adding: “It is lovely to get that level of support and understanding.

“A lot of people who have told us that their operations or clinical appointments have been cancelled say they are okay with that because they realise it is a larger problem.

“They are supportive of us and trust us more than politicians.”

Dr Moore added that the health service in the North-East is particularly vulnerable due to existing recruitment problems that will be exacerbated if unworkable contracts are introduced.

Health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has insisted that junior doctors are getting “a good deal, a fair deal”.

He said: "The job of Health Secretary is to do the right thing for patients and we have now had eight studies in the last five years that have shown that mortality rates at weekends are higher than they should be.

“And my job is to do something about that."