More NHS strike misery on the way: Both junior doctors and consultants will hold four days of united industrial action from September

Junior doctors and consultants will undertake four days of crippling joint strike action this autumn.

British Medical Association (BMA) bosses announced the coordinated walkout will take place in England over separate days in September and October.

It represents a huge escalation of the never-ending dispute between the union and ministers over pay in the health service and the first time both consultants and junior doctors will strike together. 

The BMA is demanding an inflation-busting 35 per cent rise for its members.

Junior doctors have already staged 19 days of strike action since March, with consultants taking to the picket lines on four separate days. 

British Medical Association (BMA) bosses announced the coordinated walkout will take place in England over separate days in September and October. It represents a huge escalation of the never-ending dispute between the union and ministers over pay in the health service 

The four days in September and October will see ‘Christmas Day’ levels of staffing from both groups. 

Consultants in England will be striking on September 19 and 20, with junior doctors joining the strike on September 20.

Junior doctors will then continue to full walkouts on September 21 and 22.

Both consultants and junior doctors will take to the picket lines again together on October, 2, 3 and 4. 

The announcement came after junior doctors today also renewed their mandate for industrial action for another six months, after a 71.25 per cent turnout with 43,440 (98.37 per cent) of medics voting to continue.

Junior doctor committee co-chairs Dr Rob Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said: ‘Today, junior doctors across England are sending a single message, loud and clear to the Government: we are not going anywhere. 

‘We are prepared to continue with our industrial action, but we don’t have to – the Prime Minister has the power to halt any further action by making us a credible offer that we can put to our members. 

‘Refusing to negotiate with us and with our consultant colleagues is not the way ahead.

‘Rishi Sunak now has nowhere to hide. There can be no more delaying, no more wasting time with impositions of pay deals, no more declarations that strikes must end before even stepping in the room with us. 

‘If he does not come to the table with a credible offer on pay, he will face another six months of strike action. And another six months after, and after that, if he continues to ignore us.’

They added: ‘He knows the stakes, he knows our ask, and now he knows our resolve. 

‘The Prime Minister faces a profession united in its determination to address pay erosion. 

‘Consultants and junior doctors stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity after months of facing the same inflexibility from Government.’

Meanwhile, BMA consultants committee chair Dr Vishal Sharma said: ‘Junior doctors and consultants walk the same wards, look after the same patients in an underfunded and poorly staffed NHS. 

‘It is becoming ever clearer that this Government does not value us or our work and nor does it really value patient care.

‘If the Government was in any doubt about doctors’ shared determination to reverse the crisis the NHS is in, to help keep the staff we have and address their pay erosion, today will surely dispel it. 

‘Never before have NHS consultants and junior doctors been forced to strike together for days on end, but that is where we have been brought by this Government. 

‘They must act to address our pay erosion, so that the NHS is able to train the doctors that we currently have, and to ensure that we have enough consultants to train the senior doctors of the future.’

Some 45,827 hospital appointments in England were rescheduled due to a two-day walkout by British Medical Association (BMA) consultants last week. 

It means 885,154 appointments have been postponed since NHS industrial action — which has involved staff including doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and paramedics — kicked-off in December.

If all community and mental health figures are included, the total rises to more than 940,000 — though this will not reflect the overall number of actual cancellations, due to some duplication of data.