During his BBC interview Mr Hunt insisted “I’m prepared to have talks at any stage”.
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The strike will have an enormous impact on health services, with an estimated “30,000 operations and a quarter of a million out-patient appointments” needing to be cancelled, says the Daily Telegraph.
They again offered to call off their entire strike action if Mr Hunt suspends his plan to implement the contracts in October, and restart talks.
When are junior doctors planning to walk out?
Former health minister and Lib Dem health spokesman Norman Lamb said the root cause of the dispute is the “chronic financial crisis facing the NHS and the Government’s determination to stretch already over-strained resources too far”.
He said hospitals had only been given 12 days’ notice, “which is much less than we’ve ever had before”.
Junior doctors indicated earlier this month that they were planning a series of strikes in September.
More senior doctors could also be drafted in to help cover striking colleagues.
Six strikes have taken place across England during the dispute.
“We shall be taking steps to ensure that any patient who we know will be affected by the industrial action is notified in advance”.
Industrial action was put on hold in May when the two sides got back round the table at conciliation service Acas. The BMA itself was recommending to its members to accept the new contract just a few months ago in May.
Although the contract, which will come into force from October, was negotiated between BMA junior doctors’ leaders and the government in May after previous rounds of strike action, 58 percent of medics rejected it in a vote.
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Theresa May has accused junior doctors leaders of playing politics instead of putting patients first after they approved more strike action.
Why are doctors so against the contract?
“Despite our efforts to work with [Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt] to resolve this dispute, the government has failed to listen, leaving us with no option but to take more industrial action”, the union said.
“This is only going to increase if the Government and BMA don’t take this opportunity to resume meaningful and honest negotiations to prevent further industrial action”.
Ellen McCourt, BMA junior doctor committee chair, said: ‘This is not a situation junior doctors wanted to find themselves in.
But doctors say the contracts, due to be imposed in weeks, will jeopardise patient safety because doctors will have to work more hours.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: “As doctors’ representatives, the BMA should be putting patients first not playing politics in a way that will be immensely damaging for vulnerable patients”.
Murphy urged the government and the BMA “to resume meaningful and honest negotiations to prevent further industrial action”.
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“The council has decided, after a long and exhaustive debate, to support this strike action, and today the council is united behind junior doctors in their struggle”.
