The five-day strike is set to take place between September 12 to 16, from 8am to 5pm.
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The royal colleges, representing the medical profession’s leadership, will meet to discuss their stance.
The government has said that a new contract is needed to deliver more seven day services.
Dr Bob Brown, South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust’s Executive Director, Nursing and Patient Safety, said: “We are now preparing robust plans for the first of the announced strikes by junior doctors”.
But Dr Mark Porter, chairman of the BMA council, blamed the “continued reluctance” of Mr Hunt to do “anything other than impose a contract on junior doctors”.
But junior doctors claim the strikes are unfair to those who work regular weekends already. The dispute revolves around the government’s policy of moving towards a 7-day NHS. “Confidential papers drawn up by the BMA have suggested there could be five days of strikes each month for the rest of the year”, reports the BBC.
Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, added that the industrial action is a “devastating blow to patients, and a destructive next step as far as any kind of negotiations go”. Get more Spectator for less – just £12 for 12 issues.
He added: “My view is very clear – junior doctors have an absolutely vital role to play in the NHS, it’s absolutely right that they negotiate hard for their interests when their contracts are being changed, but in the end you have to settle these things”. In addition, all of our junior doctors understand their obligations in this respect under the GMC’s Good Medical Practice.
Hundreds of junior doctors in Cambridgeshire have taken part in the six previous walk outs – two of which were all-out strikes. This followed the breakdown of talks between the two sides.
That resulted in a new contract being agreed, which BMA leaders encouraged members to accept.
In July Mr Hunt announced he will impose the new contracts against the will of the junior doctors.
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He said he can not understand why action has been called so suddenly when the BMA said it was the best deal on offer.
No doctor wants to be in this position, but we don’t really have any other option.
“Because of the duration of this latest period of industrial action it is, unfortunately, inevitable that we shall have to postpone some outpatient appointments and routine procedures”.
Ellen McCourt, BMA junior doctor committee chair, said: “Genuine efforts to resolve the dispute through talks have been met with an unwillingness to engage and, at times, deafening silence from the health secretary, leaving junior doctors with no choice but to take further action”.
She also said her college had not supported the statement because members felt it was “unjust” to imply that junior doctors “do not put patient safety first and foremost”.
May called the contract safe, and said she backs Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who has been vilified by the doctors.
In the wake of the industrial action Prime Minister Theresa May accused the BMA of failing to put patients first and “playing politics” – something doctors have denied.
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“The BMA vote in favour of industrial action this time was much lower than in the past but this makes planning quite hard”.
