Cornwall NHS Trust has offered advice to patients during the junior doctors' strike saying patients should come forward as normal - especially in an emergency.

Its says it is vital that, regardless of any strikes, patients who need urgent medical care continue to come forward as normal, especially in emergency and life-threatening situations.

Junior doctors have gone on strike from today at the start of a five day walk-out until July 2, just two days before the election

The Cornwall trust is telling patients that they should attend planned appointments unless contacted by the NHS.

They say a well-stocked first-aid kit or medicine cabinet could help you avoid a trip to the pharmacist, GP or hospital. 

Junior doctors in England have said their pay has been cut by more than a quarter over the last 15 years and have called for a 35% pay uplift.

The latest walkout marks the 11th strike by junior doctors in England since their dispute began some 20 months ago.

NHS leaders have raised concerns about the “major disruption” the strike will cause in the aftermath of a heatwave which prompted a yellow “heat-health alert” across much of the country.

Junior doctors said they would call off the strike if Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a credible commitment to restore their pay.

“We were hoping that maybe this would allow him to see how this could be a mutual win for both,” said Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chair of the BMA’s junior doctors’ committee.

He said the current strike mandate ends on September 19, adding: “If talks do not move in a timely manner, then of course our members would expect us to call for strike action.

“We have had three 98% ‘yes’ votes to our ballots for industrial action to restore their pay because they know, unfortunately, words don’t mean anything unless it’s written down and action is taken to achieve something.”

The BMA’s chairman of council Professor Philip Banfield said: “It’s got to a point where doctors felt completely disempowered and what has happened is the juniors have got together and power of social media and WhatsApp, they started talking to each other and saying: ‘You know what, enough is enough’.

“The junior doctors are really good at communicating with each other via WhatsApp and that has been the key to the success of their strike action because the junior doctors committee can talk almost instantaneously with their membership – they can talk to 50,000 people really quickly and get instant reports back. I’d love to have an organisation that actually can do that.

“You’ve seen industrial action now go on for well over a year. It’s incredibly disappointing that this has gone this far.”

Junior doctors make up half of the medical workforce and their last walkout in February led to 91,048 appointments, procedures and operations being cancelled.

The strike started at 7am on June 27 and ends on July 2, two days before voters go to the polls.

NHS leaders have said people should continue to use 999 in life-threatening emergencies and NHS 111 – on the NHS app, online, or by phone – for other health concerns.