The BMA says a junior doctors’ strike will take place on 10 February in England after talks with the government failed to reach an agreement over new contracts.
In a statement, the BMA accused the government of putting “politics before patients”.
Tens of thousands of doctors will go on strike from 8am on 10 February, with only emergency care unaffected.
The first strike took place on 12 January, lasting 24 hours. A second strike scheduled to start on 26 January and last 48 hours was called off by the doctors’ union after it said progress had been made in discussions. But hopes of a settlement were dashed by a statement put out by the BMA on Monday.
Dr Johann Malawana, BMA junior doctor committee chair, said: “The government’s position – based on ideology rather than reason – risks souring relations with an entire generation of junior doctors, the very doctors who the secretary of state [Jeremy Hunt] has acknowledged as the backbone of the NHS.
“The government’s entrenched position in refusing to recognise Saturday working as unsocial hours, together with its continued threat to impose a contract so fiercely resisted by junior doctors across England, leaves us with no alternative but to continue with industrial action.”
