Junior doctors will strike for FIVE consecutive days next month in NHS’s biggest ever walk-out 

Junior doctors will undertake a crippling five-day strike next month — the biggest ever to rock the NHS.

British Medical Association (BMA) bosses announced the walkout will take place in England from 7am Thursday 13 July until 7am Tuesday 18 July.

It represents a huge escalation of the never-ending dispute between the union and ministers over pay in the health service. The BMA is demanding an inflation-busting 35 per cent rise for its members.

Union officials bragged that the action would represent the ‘longest single walkout by doctors in the NHS’s history’.

The newly announced walkout also comes just a week after BMA medics once again took to the picket lines. 

Co-chairs of the BMA junior doctors committee Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said: ‘The NHS is one of this country’s proudest achievements.

‘And it is shameful we have a Government seemingly content to let it decline to the point of collapse with decades of real-terms pay cuts to doctors driving them away. 

‘With the 75th birthday of the NHS just days away, neglect of its workforce has left us with 7.4m people on waiting lists for surgery and procedures, 8,500 unfilled doctors’ posts in hospitals, and doctors who can barely walk down the road without a foreign government tempting them to leave an NHS where they are paid £14 per hour for a country which will pay them properly.’

The pair added they had not heard from ministers since their three-day walk-out last week.

This, they argued, left them with little choice but to announce further NHS action.

‘It has been almost a week since the last round of strikes finished — but not once have we heard from Rishi Sunak or Steve Barclay in terms of reopening negotiations since their collapse of our talks and cancelling all scheduled meetings a month ago,’ they said. 

‘What better indication of how committed they are to ending this dispute could we have?’

The union leaders said while their strike action in July would be one for the ‘history books’ ministers still had the chance to avert further disruption to patients. 

‘We are announcing the longest single walkout by doctors in the NHS’s history – but this is not a record that needs to go into the history books,’ they said. 

‘Even now the Government can avert our action by coming to the table with a credible offer on pay restoration.’

The BMA also highlighted that other nations were taking advantage of the UK Government devaluing its medics.

They pointed to the fact that the Government of South Australia last week sent mobile billboards down to the BMA picket lines encouraging them to apply for jobs Down Under as well as targeting disenfranchised medics on social media. 

Dr Laurenson and Dr Trivedi added: ‘Restoring pay can stem the flow of Australian job adverts in doctors’ social media feeds – and lead to a future 75 years of doctors being paid fairly, in a rebuilt workforce and NHS that this country can continue to be proud of.’

Tens of thousands of operations and appointments have been cancelled because of NHS strikes this year. 

The new strike would be the longest in the current dispute, eclipsing a four-day walkout by medics in April. 

That action led to an estimated 200,000 NHS operations and procedures being cancelled, adding to a growing list of 7million Brits waiting for elective care in the health service. 

Over 500,000 similar appointments have already been lost from wider NHS union industrial action since December. 

Junior doctors are taking to the picket lines in pursuit of a 35 per cent pay rise they argue is needed to address years of below inflation pay rises and stop the NHS bleeding medics to places like Australia. 

Despite the protracted dispute there is little sign of an imminent compromise with the latest BMA survey finding almost half (53 per cent) of the nearly 2,000 who took part suggesting they were thinking about leaving the NHS as a result of the Government’s response to industrial action. 

It is understood BMA negotiators proposed a multi-year settlement, which would have seen doctors below the rank of consultant receive a 49 per cent boost between 2021 and 2024 at the latest failed round of negotiations with Government. 

Downing Street said the planned strike action was concerning.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘It puts patient safety and our efforts to cut waiting lists at risk. It is obviously extremely disappointing.

‘In the meeting the Government had with junior doctors, we made a fair and reasonable opening offer.

‘We were discussing both pay and non-pay issues. But they chose to end the talks by announcing new strike dates.

‘Obviously if they cancel the damaging and disruptive strikes and show willingness to move away from their starting positions and find a way forward, then we will be able to proceed with those discussions.’