Junior doctors announce longest single period of strike action in NHS history

Junior doctors will walk out of work for five days straight in an ongoing dispute with the government over pay, ITV News Deputy Political Editor Anushka Asthana and Libby Wiener have the latest

Junior doctors in England will strike for the longest single period in NHS history, according to the British Medical Association.

The walkout will last for five days from 6:59am on July 13 and will be the fourth round of action this year.

Striking junior doctors will return to work from 7am on July, 18. 

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 that 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.

“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.

“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.

“Even now the government can avert our action by coming to the table with a credible offer on pay restoration."

It comes as the British Medical Association (BMA) said it will ballot training doctors in June, on whether to extend its strike mandate with a view to walk out every month until next spring.

Downing Street said the planned strike action is putting patient safety "at risk."

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.”Last month they held a 72-hour strike after rejecting a 5% pay rise.

"This was made clear when they finally made their pay offer of 5%.

"Not only is that nowhere near addressing pay erosion over the last 15 years, it would not even have matched inflation this year."

In Scotland, junior doctors have been offered a 14.5% pay uplift over the two-year period 2022-24.

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