NHS strikes: Junior doctors announce fresh strikes over pay disputes - dates confirmed

Junior doctors will go on strike later this month, the British Medical Association has announced.

As the pay dispute between the NHS and government continues, the British Medical Association (BMA) said the government had "failed to meet the deadline to put an improved pay offer on the table".

Thousands of medics will now go on strike in England from 7am on February 24 until 11.59pm on February 28. The BMA has also not ruled out further strike action.

Junior doctors in England staged the longest strike in NHS history in January, for six full days from January 3 to January 9.

BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said in a statement: "We have made every effort to work with the government in finding a fair solution to this dispute whilst trying to avoid strike action. Even yesterday, we were willing to delay further strike action in exchange for a short extension of our current strike mandate.

"Had the health secretary agreed to this, an act of good faith on both sides, talks could have gone ahead without more strikes. Sadly, the government declined."

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

"We already provided them with a pay increase of up to 10.3 per cent and were prepared to go further. We urged them to put an offer to their members, but they refused. We are also open to further discussions on improving doctors’ and the wider workforce’s working lives."