MORE than half of Oxfordshire’s senior consultants have pledged their support to junior doctors taking industrial action over a row with the Government.

Junior doctors across the country – including 2,000 in the Thames Valley – voted to take industrial action over Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s plans to change their contract.

But it emerged today that 267 consultants from the Oxford University Hospitals Foundation Trust have written an open letter supporting their junior colleagues.

The letter, seen by the Oxford Mail, said: “We wish to express our support for you during your current contract dispute.

“We understand and share the concerns that many elements of the proposed contract, if implemented, represent a long-term threat to patient safety.”

The letter comes after 116 consultant anaesthetists sent a separate letter backing their junior doctor colleagues in their row over the proposed contract.

Oxford University Hospitals, which runs the John Radcliffe, Churchill and Horton hospitals as well as the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre – has about 630 consultants and the two letters represent more than half its senior doctors.

A total of 28,000 junior doctors voted during the British Medical Association (BMA) ballot, with 98 per cent in favour of a full strike.

The consultants have pledged to support their junior doctor colleagues during the industrial action, which starts on Tuesday with 24 hours of emergency care only.

The letter said: “We undertake to provide safe patient care throughout any industrial action.”

The hospital’s clinical services director Paul Brennan stressed that emergency and urgent care services including maternity, oncology, renal dialysis and trauma services, will continue as normal. But Mr Brennan said non-urgent appointments and surgeries will be rearranged.

He added: “We’re working closely with all our staff, including junior doctors, to ensure that services continue to be safe during the planned industrial action on Tuesday. All urgent and emergency provision will continue as usual. Outpatient appointments and non-urgent elective operations on that day are being rescheduled.”

Patients affected will be contacted and offered an alternative appointment.