Junior doctors to stage first five-day national strike in history

The dates were agreed in an urgent meeting of union leaders on Thursday.

There is also opposition to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who has said he will impose a new contract on junior doctors after they rejected a revised contract recommended by the British Medical Association.

The Government announced it would impose a new contract after junior doctors and medical students voted – by 58 per cent – to reject a contract brokered with the BMA.

The BMA says members felt the contract did not do enough to reward those who work the most weekends and was unfair on part-time workers, and there was strong opposition to the fact it was being forced on them.

The NHS is making contingency plans as it’s expected one million hospital appointments may have to cancelled and a thousand operations cancelled. We shall be discussing the implications of this action with our Junior Doctors and our colleagues in the BMA.

BMA chairman Dr Mark Porter said: “I have to say it beggars belief that we can be accused of playing politics in this when the stated reason of the government proceeding is that it was in their party manifesto”.

BMA junior doctor committee chair Ellen McCourt said: “This is not a situation junior doctors wanted to find themselves in”. The dispute revolves around the government’s policy of moving towards a 7-day NHS.

Reports suggest that the latest disruption was not fully backed by BMA members, with the Daily Mail saying a leaked ballot showed just 31.5% of members supported a full walkout which was time-limited.

He said hospitals had only been given 12 days’ notice, “which is much less than we’ve ever had before”.

“I strongly urge the Department of Health to resume meaningful and honest consultations and negotiations with the junior doctors, who are rightly concerned that new plans will risk patient safety”.

“We are all aware of the importance of working together to ensure patient safety”.

The dispute has already seen six days of strikes in 2016, with the row calming down in May as the parties got around the negotiating table at mitigation service Acas.

A spokesman for the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges previously said they are “disappointed” at the prospect of further sustained industrial unrest.

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The BMA said junior doctors had been left with “no choice” but to start fresh strike action after failed attempts to resolve remaining issues with the contract.

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The long-running dispute escalated as junior doctors announced five days of strike action during which they have pledged a full walkout, unless the contract is dropped.

Katherine Murphy, from the group, told the BBC it would have a “catastrophic impact”.

“We’re devastated that the government has not listened to junior doctors”, she said.

“Whilst there are many pressures on the frontline, funding is at record levels, with the highest number of doctors employed in the history of the NHS”.

She urged the Department of Health to resume talks with junior doctors “who are rightly concerned that new plans will risk patient safety”.

There are some 55,000 junior doctors in England, about a third of the medical workforce.

“We are now working on our specific plans for the forthcoming industrial action to ensure that disruption for patients is kept to an absolute minimum, and we will be drawing on our learning from previous industrial action as we work through the detail of these”.