Doctors across the country went on strike today but many in Medway refused to walk out.

Up to 100,000 doctors across Britain were expected be taking part in industrial action in a row over their pensions and retirement age.

The strike has been organised by the British Medical Association (BMA), which represents 70% of doctors, but members did not have to take part.

More than one million hospital appointments have been cancelled, but many GPs in Medway have decided not to abandon their posts because of pre-booked or emergency appointments.

Surgeries that continued to run as normal today included Gillingham Medical Centre in Woodlands Road, The Kings Family Practice in Magpie Hall Road, Chatham, and DMC Walderslade Surgery.

Jo Nightingale, practice manager of the Gillingham Medical Centre, said the surgery’s nine doctors would all be working. She said: “No one is on strike today and we are working as normal. It was a personal decision by each doctor not to strike.”

Some surgeries did have to cancel appointments. A spokesman for City Way Surgery in Rochester said it was only accepting emergency appointments as four of its five doctors were on strike.

Patients at Medway Maritime Hospital were also told to turn up as usual for their appointments, unless they had been contacted by the hospital. A spokesman said any disruption caused from the strike was expected to be ‘minimal’.

Dr Julian Spinks, British Medical Association representative for Medway, said strike action was a ‘mixed bag’ across the Towns.

He said: “The main thing is that this action has been taken very reluctantly. There are three doctors in my surgery who haven’t taken any action – it shows how reluctant doctors are to take any action at all that may make a difference to their patients, but we are also very angry at the pension proposals.

“It is the first time in 40 years the BMA has taken action, which shows how upset we are.”

He said he feared that students would be put off from studying the profession if the plans go ahead.

“The pension scheme has always been part of the package of being a doctor,” he said.

“Students could be put off from studying to become doctors because they will come out with huge debts and will think is it worth going into the hard profession when they could do something else for the same amount of money.”