Another junior doctor strike 'does not signal they are ready to be reasonable R-DRS SAV

PATIENTS face 100,000 appointment cancellations this month after junior doctors announced a five-day strike.

- Sam Lister

An inflation-busting rise of 10.3% worth £3,000 is already being paid out to staff on the lowest salaries and another 3% was on the table.

But the British Medical Association announced it was staging its tenth walkout in its demand for a 35% hike.

Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said: "I want to find a reasonable solution that ends strike action. This action called by the BMA junior doctors committee does not signal that they are ready to be reasonable.

"We already provided them with a pay increase of up to 10.3% and were prepared to go further.

"We urged them to put an offer to their members but they refused.

Solution

"We are also open to further discussions on improving doctors' and the wider workforce's working lives." Thousands of doctors in England will walk out from 7 am on February 24 until 11.59 pm on February 28.

It ends a minute before the BMA's mandate from its members for action runs out.

The doctors' union is expected to organise at least one strike a month.

It staged the longest walkout in NHS history for six days in January.