The British Medical Association leadership has sanctioned renewed action after members rejected the deal brokered between the union and government earlier this year.
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The proposed strike action will see medics walking out for five days with full withdrawal of labour between the hours of 8am and 5pm between September 12 and September 16, with further dates to be confirmed.
However, doctors have always been arguing that the imposition of the new contract would leave them overworked and put patients at much greater risk.
A BMA spokesman said: “Junior doctors have been clear in their rejection of Jeremy Hunt’s imposed contract”.
A decision about industrial action, what that looks like, will be made today.
The council, which consists of about 30 of the BMA’s… The Junior Doctors Committee also admitted there would be a “regrettable impact on patient care”. It says: “The JDC’s executive team’s view is that any industrial action should therefore take place as soon as possible”.
The proposals are expected to be put to senior officials at the BMA on Wednesday.
Earlier this month, Ellen McCourt, who chairs the BMA’s junior doctors committee (JDC) said the JDC was asking the BMA Council to authorise a “rolling programme of esculated action beginning in early September”.
It adds: “The level of cancellation of procedures and patient disruption would increase dramatically”.
Junior doctors believe the new contracts the government plans to impose will put people’s lives at risk because of working hours, as well as a dispute over weekend pay.
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“As doctors’ representatives, the BMA should be putting patients first not playing politics in a way that will be immensely damaging for vulnerable patients”, a spokesperson for the Department of Health said.
