Countess of Chester Hospital-based TV doctor Dr Ravi Jayaram has written a Facebook post backing the junior doctors’ strike which has been shared a staggering 14,000 times.

Dr Jayaram, a consultant paediatrician and Channel 4 medical expert, has spoken out as junior doctors across England, including the Countess, prepare to strike for the 5th time next week.

Related story: Striking doctors at Countess of Chester: 'We will withdraw emergency cover'

Until now strikers have provided emergency cover but in an escalation of the dispute the next action planned from 8am to 5pm on Tuesday and Wednesday (April 26-27) will see a full walk-out in a row over new contracts.

Health secretary wants 'seven-day NHS'

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt wants the NHS to work at capacity sevens days a week with routine operations taking place at weekends as well as during the week alongside the basic emergency service.

Junior doctors claim it will lead to stressed out doctors working longer hours, potentially putting patients’ lives at risk and jeopardising their own health, and all for a reduced pay packet.

Striking junior doctors outside the Countess of Chester Hospital.

Dr Jayaram told The Chronicle his article on the ‘Dr Ravi Jayaram’ Facebook page was written out of a sense of frustration the real issues were not being aired.

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He said: “I’m trying to give the bigger picture that has not been reported in the mainstream media. It’s been shared 14,000 times, which is just ridiculous!”

In the piece, the doctor wrote: “So what is all the fuss about? Well it is about being able to be safe. When I was a JD, I used to work ridiculous hours.”

He added: “Fortunately my generation of juniors was amongst the last to have to do that and things slowly changed.“

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But Dr Jayaram is not alone in fearing the new contracts will turn back the clock.

Junior doctors are not against providing a full emergency and routine service seven days a week, if it is properly staffed and resourced.

But assuming this is the scenario, because Dr Jayaram points out ‘nobody is really sure’, then there is a worry it will simply mean spreading the existing workforce more thinly across the week.

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Dr Jayaram wrote: “A great analogy I heard was to imagine that you have a 10-inch pizza cut into five slices. You decide that five slices isn’t going to fill you up so your mum cuts the same pizza into seven slices and tells you that you’ll be full with that. But she won’t get you a bigger pizza.

“So same number of junior doctors spread more thinly is going to reduce cover on weekdays as compared to now. And weekdays are when not only emergency work but also routine planned work that also needs input from junior doctors takes place so this will have a detrimental effect on waiting lists for clinics and operations as well.”

An emergency service will be provided at the Countess of Chester Hospital during next week's strike but people are asked to stay away unless it is a genuine emergency.

NHS West Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group is asking patients to avoid A & E during strike days unless it is a genuine emergency as GPs, pharmacies, the NHS 111 telephone service or the NHS Choices website may be able to help.

Dr Jayaram reassures people that ‘bad things are not going to happen’ next week. Routine operations would be cancelled which was ‘inconvenient’, but he told The Chronicle: “What would normally be covered by junior doctors at the front-line in doing clinics and meetings is going to be done by consultants so when you turn up at hospital the first doctor you see will actually have at least eight or nine years’ experience behind them.”

Related story: A day in the life: Consultant paediatrician Ravi Jayaram

And if there was a major incident such as a pile-up on the M56, a fire or a terrorist attack then junior doctors would leave the picket line and go back into work.

“That’s the nature of medicine,” said Dr Jayaram, who stressed: “The striking doctors are not doing this out of greed, this is about making sure the NHS is staffed safely.”