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This is the moment a hero striking junior doctor left the picket line to treat a man who collapsed in the street.

The junior doctor was protesting in Southampton city centre when the pedestrian fell to the ground this afternoon.

The medic, who asked not to be named, is believed to work at Royal Bournemouth Hospital and was one of thousands of doctors who took part in a walkout over proposed changes to their working conditions and hours.

Witnesses said the man was helped onto a bench where the doctor and paramedics helped him before he was taken to hospital.

Live updates as NHS workers walk out over Jeremy Hunt's new contracts

His condition was not believed to be serious.

(Image: Digital South)

Around 100 picket lines were put in place around England in the first such strike in 40 years.

Around 4,000 operations and procedures have been cancelled and people have been asked only to attend A&E if they have a genuine emergency.

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Earlier today, Jeremy Hunt praised junior doctors who crossed the picket lines to work during today's historic strike.

The Health Secretary blasted the walkout as "totally unnecessary" and said he did not want to force his 7-day contract on doctors - but did not rule it out.

He warned: "Governments have to deliver their manifesto promises. That's our job as ministers, but it should never get to the stage of imposing a contract."

The Health Secretary claimed 40% of junior doctors had gone to work during the strike and praised those who obeyed an order to return to work at Sandwell Hospital, West Midlands .

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The under-pressure unit declared a Level 4 Major Incident - the highest possible - in an e-mail to staff just minutes after they reached the picket lines.

(Image: Sky News/Pool)

Many doctors defied the order to remain outside as doctors' union the British Medical Association (BMA) circulated legal advice.

But Mr Hunt said: "I'd like to thank the junior doctors who ignored the BMA national advice and did go back to work. I think that shows the values of the vast majority of junior doctors."

In interviews just hours after he ducked questions from journalists outside his home , Mr Hunt raised the spectre of deaths at Mid Staffs Hospital and claimed stroke patients died more at weekends.

"People get ill every day of the week and all doctors want to have a service where we offer fantastic care," he told the BBC's World At One.

(Image: Getty)

"In the end we all have a shared vision in the wake of the tragedy of what happened at Mid Staffs to make the NHS the safest, highest-quality care in the world - not just to say, 'We won't let that happen again', but to say, 'Let's learn from it and make our care the best anywhere in the world'."

He said the issue has been thrashed out for years and "every doctor" knows it's wrong to have higher death rates at the weekend.

In a pooled interview with the BBC and Sky News he said: "At the moment we have an NHS where if you have a stroke at weekends you're 20 per cent more likely to die.

"That can't be acceptable and the right thing to do is not to strike but actually sit round the table and talk to the government."

(Image: Getty)

He added: "In the end this is a completely unnecessary dispute. We have some disagreements with the BMA over pay but we all want to promise every patient who uses the NHS the promise of the same high quality care every day of the week.

"The door is open any time. There is agreement on the vast majority of changes we want to make".

But Labour's shadow health secretary Heidi Alexander said there was only one person to blame.

She said: "Anyone who has an operation cancelled today or an outpatient appointment delayed should be under no illusions.

"The person to blame for this is Jeremy Hunt and not the junior doctors."