Doctors in England will go on strike for five days in November in a row over jobs and pay, the British Medical Association (BMA) has announced.
Resident doctors will walk out for consecutive days from 7am November 14 to November 19 after failing to reach an agreement with Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
Jack Fletcher, chair of the Resident Doctors Committee, urged Mr Streeting to return to the negotiating table.
He added that the situation was “disappointing but not unredeemable”.
Mr Fletcher said: “This is not where we wanted to be. We have spent the last week in talks with Government, pressing the health secretary to end the scandal of doctors going unemployed... a situation which cannot go on.
“We talked with the Government in good faith – keen for the health secretary to see that a deal that included options to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over several years, giving newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the next four years.
“We hoped the Government would see that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the public and our patients and would also help stop our doctors leaving the NHS.
“Better employment prospects and restoring pay – are a credible way forward that would work for doctors, work for Government and work for our patients. Sadly, while we want to get such a deal done, the Government seemingly does not, leaving us with little option but to call for strike action.”
Resident doctors, previously named junior doctors, make up around half of all doctors in the NHS.
They have anywhere up to eight years of experience as a hospital doctor depending on specialty or up to three years in general practice.
Mr Streeting said the walkouts are "unreasonable and unnecessary" and "do not have the public's support, nor did a majority of resident doctors vote for them".
He added: "It is preposterous that the BMA have rushed headlong into more damaging strike action a week after its new leadership opened discussions with the Government.
"After resident doctors have received a 28.9 per cent pay rise, the Government has been clear that we simply cannot go further on pay this year.
"But by walking out on strike, the BMA are walking away from an offer to improve resident doctors' working conditions and create more specialty training roles to progress their careers. The BMA are blocking a better deal for doctors.”
The Health Secretary also warned that "the BMA's reckless posturing will harm patients, leave other doctors and NHS staff to pick up the pieces and divert resources away from rebuilding the NHS".
"We will not allow the BMA to wreck the NHS's recovery," he said.
"I urge the BMA to call off these needless strikes and come back to the table. They have a Government that wants to work with them to improve the working lives of resident doctors and create an NHS fit for the future."
Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, said: "Another strike by resident doctors is the last thing the NHS needs, particularly as we head into what's going to be another challenging winter for the health service.
"Trust leaders will do everything they can to prepare for this five-day walkout, but once again it'll be patients that will be left paying the price."
