Junior doctors to strike over four days in August

Junior doctors will walk out for four days next month after announcing their fifth round of industrial action.

The British Medical Association confirmed the strikes will take place from 7 am on 11 August until 06.59 am on 15 August amid an ongoing dispute with the government over pay and working conditions.

Medical consultants are set to walk out for two days on 24 and 25 August, following the first two-day stoppage last week.

The latest walkout by junior doctors will be their last under the current strike mandate. The BMA is reballoting its members for further industrial action. The poll closes on 31 August.

Robert Laurenson and Vivek Trivedi, co-chairs of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, said: “It should never have got to the point where we needed to announce a fifth round of strike action.

“Our message today remains the same: act like a responsible government, come to the table to negotiate with us in good faith, and with a credible offer these strikes need not go ahead at all. 

“The prime minister has told us that talks are over. But it is not for Rishi Sunak to decide that negotiations are over before he has even stepped in the room. This dispute will end only at the negotiating table.

“If the prime minister was hoping to demoralise and divide our profession with his actions, he will be disappointed.

The BMA statement added: “Junior doctors are not going anywhere, however much government might wish we would.

“The facts have not changed: we have lost more than a quarter of our pay in fifteen years and we are here to get it back.”