Pope Francis addresses the crowd during his Sunday Angelus prayer at the Vatican. — AFP

Tens of thousands of junior doctors in England went on strike on Tuesday, causing major disruption to hospitals across the country in the first walkout of its kind for 40 years.

They are providing only emergency cover during a 24-hour walkout which started at 8.00 am, meaning that several thousand routine operations have had to be cancelled, along with appointments and tests.

There are more than 55,000 junior doctors in Britain, making up a third of the medical workforce. They are qualified medical practitioners who are working while studying for qualifications to take more senior roles.

The strike is over a new type of contract which the government says will improve healthcare at night and at weekends but medics say would drastically reduce their pay.

“The new contract is not fair, it’s not safe and from the beginning, we as a profession have been bullied, intimidated and threatened by the department of health,” said psychiatrist Florence Dalton, 29, picketing at St Pancras hospital in London. She added that many workers in the state-run NHS felt “exhausted, overstretched and undervalued”.