Non-urgent and routine procedures have been cancelled across Kent today as junior doctors take part in a fourth strike over a contract branded "unsafe and unfair."

The 48-hour strike will last from 8am this morning until 8am on Friday.

Kent hospital trusts will be bringing in consultants to cover the staff shortages but several have had to cancel operations.

A spokesman for junior doctors in Kent said they did not want to inconvenience patients, but felt they had been forced into this latest round of industrial action by the government.

Ian Rudd, a urology registrar at Kent and Canterbury Hospital, said: "Jeremy Hunt and the government are not taking this seriously and we feel we've been forced into this measure.

"I feel quite angry - the way they've treated us, the way they've consistently lied about their position and misrepresented what the junior docs are concerned about.

"I'm concerned about changes to working conditions, increased hours for less pay, reduced protection so the trust can effectively get us to work for hours that could potentially be unsafe.

"I operate on a daily basis and make life or death decisions on a daily basis. I don't want to be doing that when I'm tired."

Later this month a fifth strike is planned during which junior doctors will, for the first time, withdraw emergency care.

April 26 and 27 will see the full withdrawal of labour by junior doctors represented by the British Medical Association between 8am and 5pm on both days.

As well as manning the picket lines, striking medical staff at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust will be volunteering, teaching free lifesaving skills to the public.

Striking staff at Canterbury have organised CPR classes for parents and in Ashford doctors intend to donate blood on Thursday afternoon.

Oncology registrar Dr Nicola Davis said: "In terms of recent events the contract has now been released, and the equality impact assessment has also been published.

"Unfortunately the EIA confirmed what junior doctors have said all along - that the contract is unfair.

"It is shocking to see that despite acknowledging the blatant discrimination against women in particular, the government justify this as being 'proportionate to its legitimate aim'.

"In other words saying that these plans with no sound evidence base or costings are being pushed through regardless of the consequences.

"What will it take for government to acknowledge that the plans are also unsafe, as junior doctors have also repeatedly stated?

"With the government continuing to refuse to find a negotiated settlement and impose what is now a toxic contract, junior doctors are left with little option but to go for all out strike - in the hope that it will protect safe staffing levels in local hospitals in the future.

"There will be picket lines at both Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells hospitals again.

"There will also be a free lifesaving skills for parents event in Tunbridge Wells on Thursday which is going to be very well attended."

The new contract is due to be implemented over the next year beginning in August 2016.